Merry Christmas from Speak N Spell

2 days before xmas.
--Sent from my Virgin Mobile!


--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Merry Christmas from Speak N Spell

2 days before xmas.
--Sent from my Virgin Mobile!


--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Merry Christmas from Speak N Spell

2 days before xmas.
--Sent from my Virgin Mobile!


--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

The ride home

Me and my luggage. 9 hrs to go.
--Sent from my Virgin Mobile!
Location : Laura's car


--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Keeping Up Appearances

I feel like I'm starting to fall behind on my blogs again. I just have a really hard time keeping these things going for long. The last few days have been a blur of hectic work and more work. Wednesdays always suck for me, and David's been working late at the bookstore as well.

I got my garden set up the other day... well, mostly, anyway. It's looking really nice already, and I can't wait to get the rest of the stuff I need to get it finished. I currently have tomatoes (yeah, I know it's a mite early for them, but I'm a gambler), broccoli, lettuce, parsley, basil and thyme. I'm also planning for peas, carrots and something else that will vine up on the trellis. I'm leaning towards peppers or cucumbers. I'd really like to grow strawberries as well, but I don't have anymore space, and I don't think they'll climb the trellis, will they? I need to get some coconut liners for the baskets and the other planter before I get those plants going, though.

I made a really cute pennent for the tomatoes. I took a bit of floral patterned linen and hemmed it with a decorative vine stitch. Then I used one of those Aunt Martha's iron-on transfers of tomatoes and embroidered it in the center. I'm going to get some dowel rods for it, and stake it in the tomatoes tomorrow. I got some more transfers for the other plants I'm growing, and plan to make little flags and pennants for all of them. I'm really proud of the one I've done so far. It looks like something you could buy at a fancy garden shop or something. I wonder if they'd sell on Etsy? I really ought to get some pics put up on here of all my hard work.

I Don't Want To Be A Grown-Up Anymore

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. Sometimes it just feels like everything is piling up all at once, and there's not ever going to be a break or a way to deal with it all.

I've got the day off today, and was thinking of doing some stuff around the house, but when I started taking stock, it just seems like so much.

I have literally piles of laundry that needs sorted and washed, there are boxes of crafting supplies upstairs that need to come down to the sewing room and be sorted. Of course, there's absolutely NO MORE space in there, and I'm going to have to seriously prune through everything. I have several sewing projects that I need to get finished by a rapidly approaching deadline, and I'm still trying to finish David's sweater that I started months ago. The carpets are all in desperate need of vacuuming, but to do that, I have to find homes for all the stacks of books around on the floor and put them all away, as well as gather up David's clothes from all over the apartment and add them to the mountains of laundry upstairs, which, of course, need to be washed. There are several boxes of miscellaneous stuff around that I just cannot find a place for, but just can't leave in boxes. I have tons of artwork that needs to be framed, and I really want to get my garden started soon. The car is in dire need of an oil change and tune-up (not to mention the funny sounds it's been making). There is a stack of overdue bills and old debts that I desperately need to get under control. If I'm going to attend school in the fall, I need to figure out what I need to do to transfer what credits I have from U of L and settle my incomplete semester issues with them. The girls' litter both needs to be changed, and all the linoleum needs to be mopped. All three bathrooms are filthy, and need to be thoroughly cleaned, and there are science experiments growing in the refrigerator.

The worst part is, this really is only a partial list. I'm so frustrated and I don't even know where to start to get all this in order. Everytime I start to work on it, I just stare at the mess and blank out. Then, I give up and sit here watching TV or playing video games all day, and then feel like crap for not getting anything done. I know I should just jump in and so something, but it's all too much.

Can I just be a kid, and someone else take care of all this while I play and go to school?

Me and My Big Ideas

I've got ideas. Big, huge, breath-taking ideas. I think about starting a variety of business all the time. Although I often think "Wouldn't it be nice if someone -fill in the blank- about technology or other sorts of businesses, the vast majority of the ideas I have and want to implement have to do with something crafty. I have this burning need to create something and share it with the world. Cliche? Sure. Kitcshy? You bet. But I really, really, really want to do something creative and artistic.

My most recent pipe-dream involves creating costuming for LARPs. Not just throwing together a few pirate shirts and wrap pants; but actually creating accurate clothing standards for the different races based on Nero plots. Now there are some players who take extreme effort to make their costumes reflect who they feel their character to be, but by and large, most people are just wearing the same old poet shirts and wrap pants. It doesn't make sense to me from a plot perspective that dwarves, elves and barbarians would all have the same style aesthetic, when they've had such different histories. I was reading a fashion design school workbook, and it talked about historical fashion trends and how clothing is so heavily influenced by economic, political and social trends. I would love to take these psychological factors from the real world and apply them to the fictional history provided by the Nero world to design appropriate attire for all the available races.

Of course, there would be a lot more than just what materials Quentari Elves might have available to make clothing or what colours a Biata might favour. I would have to also design clothing with the rigours of gaming in mind. Most LARP costuming currently available for purchase falls in to one of two categories: beautiful and period-accurate reproduction pieces, and cheap, easy-to-find Halloween costumes. The problems with these are that neither are made specifically for the LARPer. Reproduction pieces may look fabulous, but they are often confining, hot and not well-suited to running around in the woods. They are also exhorbitantly expensive. Halloween costumes are also not made with rigourous fighting and running in mind, and are very cheaply constructed. I've seen many modified pirate costumes fall apart the first time it rained during a weekend-long event, leaving the wearer with the bland and predictable back-up outfit: a pirate shirt and wrap pants (or worse, sweat pants).

I've been thinking all evening about how to construct a cloak that would actually be wearable during a fight. We all know cloaks look cool, and everyone wants to wear one, but you find out really quickly that cloaks are the worst packet magnets known to man. So, I've been thinking of a way to design something that would resemble a cloak from the back, but not flare out to catch packets. Maybe strategic pleating and belled sleeves would do the trick. I also thought that maybe a cape of sorts that's secretly attached to the waist somehow, or weighted at the bottom to reduce flaring might work. These are all just vague images in my head right now, but the over-arching idea is what's important. I really want to do this. I just don't know how.

Ideally, I'd eventually want to have a full line of clothing, reflecting a variety of classes and hierarchies of all 14 races in Nero, and have them Nero-approved. To start, I'd want to create a basic scheme for each of the most popular races and add on as things progress. David thinks I should start by offering to sell customized costumes to our friends around here who game. Most of them either don't care at all about their costumes anymore or make their own, so I don't know if that will work. I'll have to think about my options and see what I can work out.

Bad News, Everyone

Today, I had a doctor's appointment. It did not go as well as I'd hoped. I've been experiencing dizzy spells, especially right when I start eating or haven't eaten for a while. I've been having severe dry mouth, thirst and and endless need to go to the bathroom. I really hoped the dizzyness was just from an ear infection, but it didn't go away, and I never had any real ear pain.

So, it turns out I'm pre-diabetic and have hypotension (low blood pressure). Dr. Hubboch thinks I can really turn things around my changing my eating habits, primarily eating breakfast (which I almost never do). There will be more blood work and testing to come, to determine exactly what stage I'm at, and all that, but for now, I'm just going to have to really schedule mealtimes and make sure I'm getting the right foods at the right times. It's really disheartening. I know lots of people have diabetes, and many of them are fit and young, but I've always had this opinion that diabetes is a fat and old person's disease. I know I've gained more weight than I should, and I'm not a teenager anymore... but still. ::sigh::

Anyway, I'm really bummed now, and trying to find something to snack on that I feel like I can actually have before I head off to bed.

Lazy Sunday

Today's been a busier Sunday than usual, but still nice and relaxing. That's what I look for on Sundays. Pure relaxation.

First off, David called me to come pick him up from the hospital fairly early this morning. I'd only been asleep about three hours when he called. I groggily roused and headed off to Audobon to collect him. I had already arranged to spend part of the day with a friend who is laid up with a terrible back injury, but I wanted to get a little more sleep before heading over, so I laid back down. I was only planning to lay down for an hour or so, but after 11 or so, David woke me up and remeinded me that I was supposed to have plans. I felt really bad about being so late, but A was really understanding when I called to explain.

I collected some video games for the Wii to play with her kids and headed over. We had a blast playing Mario Party 8, and ordered a pizza. I offered to help do any housework she needed done or anything, but she only wanted me to help her get dinner started since she can't lift the crockpot. I know she's really hurting, and it sucks to see her so pitiful. I hope she gets to feeling better soon. In the meantime, I'll be offering to take care of anything she needs, or just be there for company. I think that's more or less what she really wanted today. Someone to talk to that is interested in more than Barbie dolls or schoolwork. LOL.

After I got home, David and I went to J Gumbo's for dinner. I love that place. They have the BEST sweet tea, and the food is huge and delicious. They also have a great selection of vegetarian options - nearly half their menu is or can be vegetarian! I tried a new option today with the Garden Gumbo. It was great. Really tomatoey and flavourful, and just the right amount of spice. Then we went to Walgreen's, where I was ecstatic to find Dark Chocolate Chex Mix! I thought for sure they had quit making it! I've been trying to find a bag of this sweet and crunchy treat since before xmas with no luck. I'm so glad to find it again! For a sweet treat, it's not too bad for you, and I think it's absolutely delicious!!

Now, I'm chilling on the couch watching Harry Potter movies, while David is off at Monty's place to play his DnD game. He promised that if they didn't actually play, he'd come on home, since we really haven't had any time together this weekend. He's been gone a bit, so I assume he's playing afterall. Oh well. I'll just sit here in the quiet and enjoy my time alone with Persia. It may not be the most exciting life, but it's mine. LOL.

I Am A Zombie

So, tonight, David had to go sleep. For SCIENCE!!! Ahem. He had to go take part in a sleep study, to determine if he has sleep apnea. So, I was off to entertain myself. Kailen notified me yesterday about an event going on tonight at Waterfront Park. It's called Zombies Vs. Humans. The game starts with everyone as humans with cards to designate this. One person is randomly selected to be "Patient 0", the original zombie. They must tag the humans to turn them into zombies and take their Human Cards for experience. The humans can use a wide variety of Nerf weapons to stall the zombies, who must freeze for 3 minutes when hit. The zombies have to "feed" (tag) on a human once every 30 minutes or they starve to death. So how did it play out?

Well, we sucked. LOL. Now, it was completly unrealistic, since by the rules of the game, we were confined to a large open feild, and couldn't drive off or hide out in buildings for safety. Still, the humans were unorganized and panicky. When zombies would start heading for the group of survivors, the survivors would foolishly split and run in all different directions immediately. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Even with military guys barking orders, and pre-planning sessions, and endless ammo, the humans would just all split and run right away. It took about an hour and a half for nearly all the humans to be zombiefied. It was obvious that the organizers didn't expect it to go so quickly, so they called for a reset. Anyone who wanted to rejoin the ranks of the living were given the chance to do so, and new parameters were given, and all players were 'gently reminded' of the rules. (There was quite a bit of cheating.)

Round two lasted a shorter amount of time than round one. Of course, that could be because there were many more zombies from the start. After running around for over three hours, we were all exhausted, thirsty and hungry. So, we headed off to Tumbleweed for dinner. As I feared, the stupid place didn't have anything I could eat. They used to have a pretty decent vegetarian selection, but I was left with a choice of either a cheese enchilada (I'm also lactose intolerant, so that much cheese is a bad idea) or a bean burrito, which didn't sound good at all. It really pisses me off that restaurants do this. I mean, I know I can ask for any of the "normal" stuff, and request that they leave the meat off, but then they charge me the same price for half the food, and it's never as good or as filling as something intended to be vegetarian in the first place. So, I just had chips and queso.

The brains were better. :)

I Am A God

On the way home from David's seminar, we stopped off and FINALLY picked up my reserved copy of God of War III. I've been playing all evening, and so far I've brutally murdered two gods. Poseidon was a pansy, and Hades is my bitch now.

I'm playing on the "Spartan" level, which is equivalent to "Easy" in other games, and it's still wearing me out. I understand it's supposed to be a difficult and 'challenging' game, but some of the controls are just plain stupid and annoying. One of the worst is the "rapid O mash" that's required every five seconds. I can't physically mash the O fast enough with my thumb. I have to set the controller on my leg and smack at it in a jabbing/smashing motion with my first two fingers. Half the time, I end up hitting something else and failing the challenge. It's quite annoying.

Another issue I'm having is that the double-jump is so touchy. You have to time your second hit perfectly to get the bounce off, and I tend to either be too quick or too slow everytime. I've died waaayyy more times just from jumping off a cliff than to actual foes. It's stupid. The best part of the game for me is the mental challenge of figuring out the puzzles, and guessing at what you're supposed to do. I don't know if it's a symptom of the "Easy" setting, but they've really dumbed that section down a lot for this one. I don't recall it as much from the first game, and I never played the second (I know... blasphemy), but they are really bad about spelling the answers out for you before you even get a chance to try. Say you're supposed to move a rock to activate a switch. Instead of letting you figure it out, when you first enter the room there will be this obvious pan over that zooms in on the rock and then follows your best path to the switch, where it will zoom in again. It's like playing Trivial Pursuit with that guy that's constantly dropping 'hints' while you're trying to think of the answer on your own. "It's something you eat... you had one for lunch... peanut butter and jelly ____?..." I always want to punch that guy.

I know I sound like I don't like it, but I do. It's just that the creators have done to this game what they always do: mistake annoying controls for difficulty, made all the gameplay about button mashing, and ruined the intellectual attraction that the first game had. ::sigh::

Oh well... here's hoping Portal 2 is a better sequel game!

Le Sigh, Le Boo-Hoo

I need a hug.

I had a really horrible, and horribly long day. I worked nearly 12 hours, desperately trying to get my freight all out. I did manage to do so, just under the wire. I'm so exhausted, I don't even feel like going out to anywhere for St. Patty's. I had several options for tonight, and had totally planned on doing at least one of them.

I can't even muster the will to write a decent post tonight. Bleh. I'm gonna take a hot bath (I can do that now! Yay!) and go on to bed.

Mas Floor, Por Favor!

So, last night we were called and notified that the flooring guys would arrive "first thing in the morning", right? So, we got up this morning to wait for them. And we waited, and we waited. Around 11:30 (which, by the way, is NOT "first thing in the morning") there was finally a knock on the door. It was a floorer(?). He spoke little to no English. Great. ::sigh:: He gestured to the small patch of linoleum in the foyer. "Floor here?" Thinking he just meant in this apartment in general, I said "Yeah, come on in!" He stopped in the door and looked at the vinyl square again. I said, "Come on, it's back here." He looked confused, but slowly followed, still casting longing looks back at that tiny bit of flooring in front of the door. I started to get a feeling that he may not be clear on what the parameters of his job were. We got back to the sewing room and he saw the concrete square where they had filled the hole in the floor. To say he looked surprised would be a gross understatement. "No, no... es problemo," he sputtered. "What? What's the problem?" He just stood there, looking at me blankly and gesturing to the square of concrete. "Problemo." "That's where you're putting the new floor." I gestured to include the whole room, and then pointed in the kitchen, which was also supposed to be getting new flooring. "All this. New floor." He blinked. I waited. He blinked again. I could see he was not at all prepared for this level of work. He was struggling to find the words to explain to me that this was not what he was told he would be doing today. "Problemo. Uh... uhm... vinyl? Piso? Uhh..." He was pantomiming with his hands in a rectangular shape, about 3X2 yards. Then he pointed at the hole in the floor again... "This big... es... uhh.... ::something in Spanish:: no es.... Es problemo." I'm not stupid, so I gather that he only had a small peice of vinyl on hand, and that it was not enough to cover the hole in the floor, let alone all the space that was supposed to be covered. I scraped my brain for the Spanish I once knew so well. None of it covered construction terms. Were we to be ordering food or naming the members of a family, I'd be fine, but how to tell him that he needed to go get enough linoleum to cover the floors from the bar to the window was beyond me at that moment. Finally, he got out a cell phone and called who I assume was his boss. He talked for several minutes to this person (in Spanish, of course), and I picked up enough to understand he was telling them that his work order was for the wrong room and he didn't have the right flooring and that I was mad. I distinctly heard "La senorita esta angriada." I felt kind of bad, 'cause he was getting flustered and embarrassed, but dammit, if you want to work in a country, learn enough of their language to get by. Come on! If I moved to a foreign country, I would learn their language if I wanted to succeed. It's really rude to make me (the customer) stress and try to communicate in your language in my country.

Anyway, he eventually hands me the phone and says "English?" The guy on the other end spoke only a little more English than the contractor himself. I kept having to ask him to repeat himself, and finally just said, "Look, I'm going to call the apartment office. You guys figure it out." He said they'd be back 'later.' At this point, I called the office and they were really upset. They said that they had a ton of trouble getting the guy his receipt and work order when he first came in, and had already struggled to explain what he was going to do. We had to leave so I could go to work.

I spent the whole day worrying about what was going on back at my apartment. Did I have any floor? Did it cover wall to wall? Was it being done right, or at all?? Finally, after getting off work, David and I got back to see the damage. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to find very nice, (better than the old, in fact) new linoleum from the window in the kitchen to the bar of my sewing room. The moulding had been lifted and reset correctly, and the lines were matched perfectly. It still reeks of flooring chemicals, so we can't bring the ratties back down yet (sensitive respritory systems, you know) but tomorrow the furniture will all be put back, and soon life will be back to normal.

Mission: Complete.

So, we finally got up off our asses and moved all the furniture and shelving out of the sewing room and the kitchen. It's all piled around the living room, and the place looks just dreadful. I swept the floor really well, and it's all ready to be pulled up and re-laid tomorrow. Then, I suppose we'll be up really late putting everything back in order. ::sigh:: This whole thing really sucks. I really think the complex should be paying us back for the trouble we've been put to as a result of their failure to keep this place in good order. I mean, we've been complaining about the water and electric bills being waaaayyyy out of line for months, but they kept ignoring us and saying "Oh, no, everyone's bills go up in the winter." Bullshit, not in over $200 increases, they don't. It took them two months to finally get it through their thick skulls that something is actually wrong and then another month to actually fix it. (That's assuming the leak is really fixed, of course.) I'm going to have to find out if we have any legal recourse to make them pay for the bills that have amassed while they ignored this issue. Surely there's something we can do, right?? Grr... well, we need to figure out what we're going to do for dinner.

Hubby Birthday!

So, today is DH's b-day. We had made tentative plans to drive up to Cincy and hit Jungle Jim's. I was really excited about it, but DH decided to sleep half the day away, and then didn't really want to make the trip. Oh well, it's his birthday.

I offered to him to do absolutely ANYTHING he wanted to do today. We went to PetSmart and bought the girls some new litter, and Persia a new litter box, then to Walmart and got a key made. Yep, we're crazy like that. We buy our pets presents on our birthdays. LOL. Oh yeah, we also went to Cato Furniture and looked at some discount couches. I really like this one that we saw, and it wasn't that expensive, but we're going to do a bit more shopping around before we settle on anything.

We ate at Famous Dave's (which has positively no vegetarian options. The waiter's shirt even said "Vegetarians are welcome. ... To change their ways." Oh, har-de-har-har.) and bought cupcakes at Gigi's Cupcakes. The food at Famous Dave's was okay. I broke my vegetarian diet for once, since there was absolutely nothing else, and had chicken. I hate that I had to give in like that, but dammit, I was hungry. I absolutely was not going to eat pork, and most of the sides had bacon in them. Yuck. My chicken was undercooked, but seasoned well. It seemed really greasy and fatty to me, but I think that's just because I'm not used to eating real dead animals anymore. David seemed to enjoy his meal pretty well, and that's what matters today.

The cupcakes were unreal. I should have taken pictures. The icing was piled on literally twice as tall as the cupcakes themselves! There's still a mound of icing left on each of our plates that is about the size of a normal cupcake. They were really tasty, though, and they have some incredible flavour options. I had the PB&J, which is a white cake with strawberry jelly filling, peanut butter buttercream icing and strawberries and peanuts on top. Mmmmm. David got the Hot Toddy, which was a coffee flavoured cake, buttercream icing and cocoa dusting. He seemed to like it pretty well.

Now, we're sitting on the crappy-old-couch-I-hate while David plays Final Fantasy XIII, and I'm surfing the net. I don't know if we'll do anything else today. I got a call from the maintenance guy a bit ago, and we are going to have to move EVERYTHING out of the sewing room and kitchen tonight, because they are going to come and lay a new floor in those rooms tomorrow. It sucks. The stuff in the sewing room is all HUGE and really heavy, and I have no idea where we're going to put it for now. I'm kind of stalling right now, since I really don't want to do it. Bleh. Guess I can't put it off forever, huh?

Bibliophile, or bibliomaniac?

I've never been good at keeping any kind of journal. Since I was small, I've continuously bought various notebooks and journals, with every good intention of writing down my thoughts and such, but I've yet to keep one of them going for any longer than a few weeks. Whenever we're out shopping, I'll inevitably seek out the journals and consider getting a new one. I'll run my hands over the covers, flip through the pages, and imagine the writer inside finally finding an outlet. Sometimes, I'll even spend the money for it, along with fancy, new ink pens to match, and take them home, where they will often sit, still in the bags, for months or years. Usually, I'll break out the new pens and write my name, or the colour of the pen, or something useless like "I'm writing in this journal. :)" over and over on one page, and then that'll be it. This blog, along with a few others are further examples (albeit of the digital variety) of these well-intentioned, but ultimately doomed, journals.

There are stacks upon stacks of empty and nearly-empty journals and notebooks all over the house. Most of them only have a few pages filled out, if that. There are also bookshelves that would put many libraries to shame. I simply CANNOT throw away any book. I even have multiple copies of the same book, and some are falling apart to the point that they are unreadable. Still, I can't throw them out.

I was watching a show on TLC called "Hoarding: Buried Alive". It kind of made me wonder about my own need to own so many books and writing tools. (I also have a prodigious collections of ink pens, most of which are dried up. But, that is another issue altogether.) I did a Google search on hoarding, and found that there is actually a subset of hoarding that focuses on books only. It's called 'bibliomania'.

I've shown tendencies in the past of hoarding other items as well, including fabric, art supplies, yarn, movies, tapes (I haven't owned a tape player for over 10 years), movies, CDs, etc. I'm generally able to eventually clear these things out pretty well. Whenever I get the mood to clean, or need to clean for company, moving or whatever, I can gradually clear out these types of items. That's not to say I don't still have a lot of crap I know I'll never use, nor even have the ability to use (such as the aforementioned tapes), but I can get rid of it a little of a time. Not books, though. I have school books from classes I took my freshman year of high school, recipe books that have had things spilled on them and the pages are stuck together, yearbooks for schools that no one I know has ever attended, positively ancient magazines for hobbies in which I have never been interested, and books in foreign languages that I don't speak. We're moving again in a few months, and I know that DH is going to push me to throw out many of these books, instead of moving them. The thought fills me with dread and resentment.

Am I in the beginning stages of a serious problem?