Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of May 2003. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Sat, May 31, 2003 (11:55pm) Life Sucketh. Thursday afternoon I got a call from one of the nurses who I occasionally switch shifts with. She was horribly ill, and looking for someone to cover her shift at the Westend Clinic that same eve. I, being a sucker, agreed... despite the fact that I had a Nos meting to attend, and had been looking forward to an evening at BPs. The shift was way in the freaking West End - a 45 minute drive from our place in NorthEast Sherwood Park. I had to skip supper just to get there not-too-late. Working in an unfamiliar clinic made me slow, inefficient, and a little irritated. Much more irritating was the fact that although the clinic closed at 10pm, we did not get out til 11:30 pm 'cuz we were just so busy. So bust, in fact, that I didn't get even a brief break to eat the supper I'd packed with me, in my lunchbox. When we finally got out, I was exhausted and starving. I guess the low blood sugars made me stupid, 'cuz I didn't realize until we'd locked up the clinic, left the office building in which the clinic was located, and were walking across the parking lot, that I had left my lunchbox in the clinic. No problem, I figured... we'd just go in again and get it. Alas, although I had a key to the clinic, I had no key to the office building. Neither did the receptionist I'd been workign with. No one did, in fact, except a night security guard who was quite uncontactable. Grrrr. Merely locking my lunchbox in the clinic would have been irritating enough (particularly because it would necessitate 1 and 1/2 hours of round-trip driving to get it back the next day). However, it wasn't just my lunchbox. I often keep my ID in my lunchbox when at work... 'cuz jackets and purses sometimes go missing in walk-in clinics. Today, I also had my bank card with me, so I could go to BP's after work. And since I was going to BPs (which is right next to the TD bank where Shades and I have an account) I had Shades' paycheque in it, too, for depositting. Oh - and I had a pair of DVDs to drop off at the Movie Studio rental place on 109... tapes that were due back that very eve. Fuck.. So I had to leave all that stuff behind, go to BPs grumpy, hungry, and desperately trying to figure out when/how I was gonna get my stuff back, as soon as possible. I was actually pretty lucky, 'cuz Else & Phil & co were still at BP's, and offered to spot me for dinner. That made me less hungry, at least. Then we sat and talked 'til 3am, which made me much less grumpy. It did, however, have the side affect of adding 'exhausted' to my list of complaints. I got home by 3:30am, and to bed by 4am. I didn't get to sleep 'til 4:30. And then, to make life interesting, Kalen woke at 6:30am. She resisted being re-settled despite numerous attempts, and then decided to just plain scream for nearly two hours solid. I did NOT sleep well through this. By 8:30 Connor was awake, so I got up. ug.. I had effectively 2 hours of sleep. Spent the morning driving to the West End with two grupy, tired shildren in tow. Got my lunchbox back. Visitted my Oma and Opa who live in the west end - as much to get the grumpy kids out of the car for an hour as because I enjoy hanging out with them. And, hey... they really dig their great-grandkids. The drive home was hot and tiring, and if it wasn't for playing 'refrree' to two grumpy kids, I might have dozed off on the road, I was so freaking tired. Had a nap when I got home. I think I managed to double my sleep quotient for the day. Good thing too, 'cuz we had a Purgatory game that evening, and I hadn't gotten anything ready yet. So I set about making supper and waited for Shades to get home so I could have a shower, get changed, and go. Shades got home. I chopped the tip off my thumb while cutting tomatos for spaghetti sauce. Shades watched the kids while I drove into Edmonton to go to the doctor's. I didn't need stitches, but I got a whopping big bandage on my thumb... just in time for the Purgatory game. Oh, and forget about that shower... I wasn't allowed to get the bandage wet. Not like i had time anyway, at that point. Got lost on the way to the Purgatory game. Don't wanna talk about it. Low blood sugar shall be my alibi. The game was good. Took many pics. After 9pm, I just wasn't walking straight anymore, though. I left the game early. Went home. Had some of that nice supper I'd been cooking earlier. Went to sleep. No, alas, I didn't got to sleep. I realized that I still hadn't returned those DVDs. They were now racking up late charges. And to make things more annoying, I still hadn't even watched one of them. I hate paying late fees on things I didn't even get around to seeing. So I watched Spriggan. THEN I went to sleep, at 1am. I was up this morning at 7am, so I could have that shower I missed yesterday, and still make it to work shortly after 8am. The shift was pretty calm, and went well. I, however, still manged to screw up. I had a lady phone and ask if we took out nasal packing... so I told her we did. I, unfortunately, missed a little detail - she said her son had recently had rhinoplasty. The packing wasn't from a minor nosebleed, it was a dressing to keep the wound from opening and possibly hemorrhaging. We can't take out that kind of stuff, because if the patient starts to bleed to death, we're kinda screwed. But this lady, having been misinformed by my fair self, came al the way from the Royal Alex Emergency and waited in our clinic for an hour, only to be told we couldn't help her. She was pissed. Rightfully so, I guess. Chalk that one up as another incident of "stupid walk-in clinic nurses don't know what they're talking about" Yeah...I screwed up. Mea culpa, mea culpa. Did I mention the low blood sugars thing? Well, at least it wasn't a life-threatening mistake. I do know enough to double-check with the docs if I in my blood-sugar-deprived state can't remember important medical facts. Like 'don't feed bleach to the screaming kids in the waiting room, even if they are driving you nuts'. So I got home around 5pm. Shades made supper. I was gonna go out w/ Blue Revolutionist for coffee, but he and I have rescheduled for tomorrow. Probably for the best, really. Shades deserved a night out, and I deserve to get some sleep. Ug... Sleep. Midnight fast approaches. Must go to bed. Gotta be up early to work again tomorrow. |
| Thurs, May 29, 2003 (2:45am) It was another loooong night at work. We didn't get out 'til well past 11pm. I hung out at my Mom's & de-stressed a little. Came home and played online 'til the caffeine buzz wore down. Here's a little scenario from last night: A patient came in, looked at the 2+ hour wait we had, and explained she needed to get in and see the doctor right away - she simply couldn't wait. I took her aside and did an assessment. She was only coming in to see the doctor about a minor complaint. I explained that since she wasn't in a critical condition, she should wait with everyone else. "But I can't wait!" She says. "I have to be home by 9:00 pm to take my medication. If I wait, it'll be past 10:00. And I need to take my medication on time. If I don't, I'll start hallucinating. Do you want me to go psycho on you, in your waiting room?!? " Ug. No - the last thing we need is more psychos tonight. Particularly raving psychos.. and this chick had "Raving Psycho" written all over her. I checked her file, while she stood and looked at me expectantly. I hate bowing to that kind of pressure... ya know, the "Do things my way or I'll throw a temper tantrum" kind of thing. Alas, her record confirmed that she was indeed on anti-psychotic medication, and that she had been having "control" issues lately. So, what could I do? She obviously wanted to have some special exception made for her. And she didn't look like she'd be giving anyone a moments peace unless we treated her as the special person she was. "Tell you what..." I say. "Since this problem with the medication is a serious matter, I'll make a special exception for you." Her smile brightens. I continue: "We obviously can't have you miss taking your pill. So I'll let you go home right now to take your medication, and if you aren't back before we call your name we'll hold your place in line for you. That way the other patients won't get mad that you're going in before them, but you'll still be able to take your medication, and still see the doctor when you get back." She stares at me, obviously trying to find some flaw in my logic. I smile. "Great. Then I'll just let you be going now, since I understand how important it is for you to take that pill, and we'll keep things moving as quickly as we can here, so no one has to wait longer than they need to. Have a lovely evening. See you when you get back." And I moved on to do the dressing change for a young girl who had been patiently waiting in the room across the hall. Some days.... |
| Wed, May 28, 2003 (12:00pm) Heh - it's been a long morning. I'm taking care of 4 kids right now... Aria and Cassandra came for a sleep-over. Kalen's got her "big girl" bed set up now, so she slept in it, and Aria slept on the spare bed. There was some... tension... at first, but things settled down before I pulled all my hair out. Connor slept well in his own room (as usual) and Cassie got to sleep in Connor's crib in the closet. It worked out pretty well. One quick note: Star gets extra cool points for carrying spare satchels of Chai in her diaper bag. |
| Tues, May 27, 2003 (11:35am) Just talked w/ Cyndr on the phone about Questing, Cons, and stuff, and I realized I still haven't gotten around to tossing my MayQuest pics online. Tsk. So... here they are, in my random directory. I only took a few pics, since I wasn't there for the first 2/3rds of the quest. To supplement my meager offering, I've tossed in a couple pics sent my way by Lofwyr (They're identified by -lowfyr after the image name). |
| Mon, May 26, 2003 (7:10pm) Tomorrow's gonna be fun. I'm going to IKEA. Okay, okay - I'l admit it. I like shopping. That is one of my more prominent female traits. Despite however much I try, I can't shake this particularly feminine penchant for spending money... it's something which must be genetically wired into me. Generally, I try to keep my spending to a minimum, but when I do get the chance to just shop, I really enjoy it. Things on my "To Buy" list include:
Well, that's it for now. I'm off to a 7th Sea game at Jeff's. Later, all. (Grrrr... couldn't post this for a few minutes, 'cuz it wouldn't connect to the server. But I figured out what was wrong... the computer lost its network connection. Apparently, Connor has been chewing on the Cat-5 cable again. MUST make him stop doing that.) |
| Mon, May 26, 2003 (2:25pm) Random things and stuff. I picked up a copy of Sims: Superstar last week. It's a waste. Like Hot Date and Vacation Island, it doesn't give you any cool new neighborhood stuff it just gives you another screen you can go to, so you can try to make your Sims famous. I don't like it. The only recent expansion I've liked is Sims: Unleashed. It incorporated the 'new' neighborhood right into the existing neighborhood screen. You can rezone lots, and make them commercial or residential. You can have pets which live with you, like family members. You can have a lot more houses than you used to. I like that kind of stuff. I like new bodies and heads for the Sims. I like new career paths. I like stuff that affects the day-to-day play of the Sims, not things you have to leave the main screen for. So, if anyone wants to check out the Sims: Superstar expansion, you can borrow mine. I won't be using it. On other fronts, I'm getting excited about our upcoming trip to Gencon. From July 23rd to 28th, Shades and I will be child-free... hanging out at a Con full of gamers, in Indianapolis. I was browsing the website and discovered that Jason Carter will be there. I recognize a couple of names from the Art Show. I also can't help but be interested in this: True Dungeon. It looks like a DungeonQuest! Despite billing itself as "Not a LARP" it seems to be what I would expect from a DungeonQuest-style LARP, using D&D rules. Drat - registration is on-site, only. Must go register as soon as we get off the plane. Things are also looking good for our cabin on the Quad War site. My Mom went out last weekend to work on her cabin (right next to ours) and they've got some insulation and some paint left over. She says that if they go out again this coming weekend, they might put some of that insulation into our cabin, and maybe put walls up around the bedroom, and possibly toss some paint or primer onto our cabin, to make the interior a bit brighter. Of course, we desperately need shingles, too, so we don't get water pouring through the cracks in the roof during a rainstorm. But if we can get shingles up, and walls for our bedroom, then we can go out to the cabin for a weekend and take the kids with us. They'll stay dry and warm, and have a place to sleep. Then we can put them down for naps and get even more work done on the cabin. What else to say...? Last night at work was a Loooong one. We normally lock our doors at 10pm and are out by 10:30. Last night, we still had a half-dozen patients in our waiting room when we locked the door at 10pm. We didn't get them cleared out 'til 10:45. Then we had to shut down. The cleaning service was already there before we left. The shift was also very full. Several sets of stitches, lots of tetanus immunizations to give, dressing changes and allergy shots. You could almost have chained me to the treatment rooms, and I would have been busy all night. Well, except then I wouldn't have been able to answer phones in my few free moments, or autoclave our instruments so they'd be ready for tomorrow's patients. At least the weather had cooled down by the time I got home, and there were lightning flashes in the south. By midnight, we were having ourselves a lovely summer thunderstorm. Mmmmm... I love thunderstorms. Shades and I watched B5 together, and then went to bed early. It was... nice. |
| Sun, May 25, 2003 (12:55pm) Haven't had much time to post. I'm working this weekend, and Shades has a Lego show at Londonderry Mall (which means I'm watching the kids when I'm not at work), so it's rather hectic around here. It's also too hot, here. Much too hot. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Man am I ever looking forward to going to work in a couple hours. Mmmmmm... Air Conditioning. |
| Fri, May 23, 2003 (10:15am) Morinin'. I had a good time at BP's last night. I didn't get there 'til late 'cuz I stayed home and watched the kids for the early part of the evening, so Shades could get some work done on shelves in the basement, and then I swung by the video store to pick up a couple DVD's I'd special ordered. But I did eventually get to BP's, and was immediately greeted by one of my favorite Purgatory Storytellers. He wanted to "talk" with me. So I wolfed down some food, screwed up my courage, and followed him to the back corner of the restaurant to do a small scene. Oh, my. I really can't get into details, 'cuz I know a couple of Purgatory players read my weblog, but suffice to say that Lazarus can be very intimidating when he wants to be. That said, the RP was actually quite good, and my character came away from it in a better mood than she was earlier. At least now I'm less confused as to what's going on, and can focus my investigations in the right direction. But first, I have to talk to Julien... Accomplishment of the Day: Added The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Love and a .45 to my DVD collection. |
| Thurs, May 22, 2003 (2:05pm) Survey results time... How many days a week is it reasonable to devote to Gaming? Out of 12 respondants, 3 said 1-2 days per week, 1 said 3-4 days per week, 2 said 8 days per week, and 6 said Any day not otherwise occupied with school, work, or other important activities. That being said, when asked how many days they actually spent gaming, most replied with some variant of "An Unreasanable Number of them". People seemed quite okay with this, though. One response really caught my eye, and I think explains why so many gamers are willing to spend an unreasonable amount of time on their hobby... " ... Of course, I spend a lot more time than that simply preparing for games. And why not? What other pastime would have me studying French and Latin, Medieval poetry, Greek mythology, fashions of all eras, the lyrics to Broadway musicals and the movements of marionettes? Where else could I have learned how to barter with green Brownies, hit an FBI agent with the broad side of a sword so as to only severly disable her, make Death himself be jealous of a rat, and give commands to a moon-base that calls one 'mistress' " Yeah... gaming. It's not just a waste of time. It's a Character Building experience. Accomplishment of the Day: Finally got around to posting a new survey. No clue how long this one'll stay up. |
| Wed, May 21, 2003 (7:05pm) Mmmmm. Tossed together some homemade Chicken Noodle Soup for the sick kids. Had a couple bowls myself. That felt good. I almost feel human again. My Mom was nice and picked up Kale's meds from the drug store and brought 'em here, so I didn't have to go cavorting around the city with sick kids in tow. Lazarus was a sweetie and called to give me a telephone hug. My day is going much better now. With luck, I'll even be able to think of some plotline before my Seventh Sea players arrive for our game at 8pm. Accomplishment of the Day: Got the results back from my six month blood test. They're good. Not like I was worried they'd come back positive for Hep C or HIV or anything, but still, it's nice to know for sure. |
| Wed, May 21, 2003 (3:00pm) Great. Now Connor is throwing up. Both kids are running fevers. Kalen doesn't want to eat. I'm exhausted. Anybody want to trade days with me? |
Wed, May 21, 2003 (12:50pm)It's turning out to be quite the day. Kalen's managed to pick up the bug I've been fighting. Now she's got an upper respiratory tract infection. She's wheezing, too, which means we're running Ventolin and Pulmicort by nebulizer every 4 hours. The last thing I need is for this to turn into pneumonia. This does, of course, butcher the other plans I had for the day, but I can cope. Rather that than a trip to ER, eh? |
| Tues, May 20, 2003 (10:45pm) Kay - feeling better now. I slept, and ate, and feel less whiney and grumpy, and less guilty, too. The lack of guilt is aided by the fact that James is off watching movies without me, and having fun while I listen to a child scream herself to sleep. Ah, pennance. Anyway, my Mom's been after me to post more pics from the cabin-building in Sask. I've got some tossed into a directory here. Hopefully I'll scan some of the hard-copy pics later tonight, and toss them into that directory too. |
| Tues, May 20, 2003 (3:10pm) Complaints day. I'm freaking tired. I'm sore. I'm slightly sick. I'm in a grumbly mood. And to top it off, I'm feeling guilty. Ya know, I had a lot of fun going to Sask on Saturday, Quest on Sunday, and Sask on Monday again. I wish it coulda been done differently, though. I wish we'd have made it out of here on time, on Friday. I coulda slept overnight in Sask, and not done eight hours of driving in one day. Plus, we'd have had a LOT more building done, and I really wouldn't have felt the need to go back out on Monday. Then I coulda been at the Quest earlier in the day... maybe even caught some of the quest on Saturday night. And I could have had Monday home with Shades. My muscles wouldn't be as sore... a full day of questing should NOT be topped off with 6 hours of driving the next day... your muscles take twice as long to relax after that period of enforced inactivity. Sorry for putting you through it too, Don... but thanks for driving out with me. Shades (whom I love dearly, and who is far nicer to me than I deserve) really deserved to have me stay home Monday. He'd had a tough weekend with the kids, and since the building crew didn't call 'til nearly noon on Monday he'd kinda expected that I wouldn't be going out after all. So when they did call, and I did drive out, it sorta spoiled what little was left of his weekend. Sorry, love. So where does the guilt come in? Well, I didn't clear my junk out of the van when I got home. Generally speaking, I like to leave things clean when I'm done. But I got in late on Monday night, and left all the junk in the van to deal with later. Shades was very sweet and drove Don home, 'cuz I was absolutely shot. And what did I do in return? I checked my email and posted on my blog, and went to bed. So this morning Shades had to clear out the van before going to work. I probably made him late for work because of that, too. He's so nice to me, letting me go questing and cabin building. He watches the kids while I'm gone. He cleaned the house, changed the sheets on the bed, did the laundry. he even drove Don home for me. And what do I do? I take off on him, and leave him more shit to clean up when I get back. And I have the nerve to sit here and complain about how tired and sore I am. Now I'm ticked off at myself for that, too. I really need to think of something to do to show how much he means to me, and how glad I am that he puts up with me the way he does. Gr. now i'm crying. kay - gonna get offline. back later. |
| Mon, May 19, 2003 (11:50pm) Home again, home again, Jiggity jig... Just got back from Sask. again. Very tired. Again. MayQuest was lots of fun. I got out to the site about noon on Sunday and played 'til it ended around 4(ish). Hung out for another 4 hours to catch the feast, awards, and chatting. Drove home with Jeanne-Marie and ended up talking with her 'til nearly midnight. Got home. Took a nice long hot bath. Crashed. Didn't wake up 'til 11am. Around that time, the guys (the ones building our cabin) called from Sask to say they were still gonna be building all day today, so I could come out and give 'em a hand (or just watch) if I wanted. So I called a couple people and found someone willing to drive out with me (a couple of people, actually. I ended up going out with Don, but many thanks to Kris for also volunteering. Maybe I'll forgive him for attacking me in K.o.C., even...(grin)). We left Edmonton well after noon. Got to the site sometime after 4pm. Helped and/or took pics 'til 8:30pm. Packed everything up, and drove back to Edmonton. 
I very nearly lost my Cameras (digital and SLR) in Sask, 'cuz I had my camera case on the back bumper and forgot to take it into the van. Luckily Jay and James, driving behind us, saw it on the road and stopped to pick it up for me. Thanks, Jay (sheepish grin). Thanks to everyone who helped in any way with the whole cabin-building thing... from Jay and James (who had the tools and the know-how) to Shades (who watched the kids so I could go to Sask.) and Don (for keeping me company for 6 hours of drving-time) and Mom (who let us use her cabin as a base of operations while we were building ours).By the way - the picture is of my Mom's cabin (on the left) and our new cabin (on the right). Our cabin doesn't have windows or shingles yet, like Mom's cabin does. Then again, neither cabin has paint. We've still got a lot of work to do before Quad War. |
| Sun, May 18, 2003 (1:30am) Just got home from Sask. Very tired. We didn't end up leaving Edmonton 'til just before noon, what with having to switch vehicles, and then waiting for the lumber to be re-loaded on the trailer ('cuz the guys from Trail had loaded it so the hitch was dragging on the ground). We got out to the site around 3pm, and set up camp. The guys started working on the cabin almost immediately. When I left at 9:30pm, we had a floor already made and the 2x4s were being cut for framing the walls. It was getting dark, though, so I don't know how much longer they were going to keep working. We might already have some walls framed, we might not. It was snowing by the time I hit Lloydminster. That did not make for good driving. Stopped at midnight by Innismore for coffee and a phonecall to Shades to help me wake up. I was getting pretty tired by then. Stopped & walked around the van a few times on the way home to fight off the drowsies. Nasty chilly out. Wakes ya up, fast. Got into Sh.Park a few minutes ago. Gonna go to bed now. Quest tomorrow. Accomplishment of the Day: Learned how to drive a CAT! That was way cool. Not what I expected to do this weekend at all. Baron Stu rocks. |
| Sat, May 17, 2003 (9:30am) GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Just got a phone call from Kat (the one who was on her way here so we could head out to Sask together) and her car has apparently overheated on Hwy 14. Well. That sucks. Not even out of the city proper yet, and we're having vehicle problems. AND that means we're being further delayed while they get a someone (friend of theirs) to come look at the vehicle to figure out what's wrong. If it's easily repairable, we might be delayed 10 or 15 minutes while they fix it. If not, they'll drive back to her place, switch ALL their luggage over to a secondary vehicle (her van) and take that out to the site. Or rather, to my place so I can meet up with them and we can drive out together.. in case of further vehicle problems. Life is conspiring against me. |
| Sat, May 17, 2003 (9:20am) Mornin' again. As you can see (by the fact that I am posting, not necessarily with your own eyes) I am NOT in Saskatchewan this morning. We never made it out yestarday. Not 'cuz we weren't ready... but because the guys at the lumber store got their order mixed up. The lumber was not ready at 4:30pm when out carpenter went to pick it up. The guys at Trail said they'd have it ready first thing in the morning. So, its after 9am now, and (in theory) our carpenter is on the south side picking up all the wood and materials. His wife is on her way to Sherwood Park where I'll meet up with her, and the two of us will start heading out to the Quad War site together. Although I was in a rather snarly mood yesterday because of the screw-up, it didn't turn out so bad. I was able to take Lazarus up on his invite to watch the Matrix with friends last night. It was good. Won't go into details 'cuz there are people who haven't seen it, and I'm not as good as Anna at writing spoiler-free commentary. But I will say that Carrie-Anne Moss is still a babe. |
| Fri, May 16, 2003 (10:00am) Mornin' all. I have no idea when I'll next have a chance to post, so I'm doing a quick entry this morning to explain my absence for the next few days. As of noon today, I hope to be running around town paying for lumber, renting a trailer, and buying groceries to pack into coolers and take to Saskatchewan. We're going to be building a cabin out there... a place where we can stay (and run a small store) during SCA events rather than arriving late at night and having to put up a tent in the rain, which is what always happens otherwise. I'll be in Saskatchewan overnight, and working through most of Saturday. Sat evening (not sure exactly when) I'll pack up my things and head back into Edmonton. Ideally, I'll drop off my used laundry, pick up a fresh bag packed with quest costume and fresh clothes, and head directly out to the quest. More likely, I'll realize how tired I am, decide to sleep in my own bed overnight, and head to the Quest Sunday morning. Sunday, I'll be at Camp Encounter questing my heart out. Or at least, questing people's money out of their pouches. Yay thieves. Sunday eve, I'll drive home (not staying overnight at the after-party) and crash. Monday morning, I might be driving right back out to Saskatchewan to help with whatever still needs to be done on the cabin. Or I might not, depending on what the weather is like, and how much the work crew got done in my absence. So, basically, if you don't hear from me in the next few days, don't worry - I'm just busy. Of course, mst of the readership of this blog won't even notice my absence... they'll be out at the Quest or in Sask or at May Crown, too. Oh - one last thing. Do not attempt to juggle the following items: Portable phone, Cell phone, Sippy cup, Juice. Escpecially not if you don't know how to juggle. The result is that you will drop all but one item, and the rest will make a mess on the floor. I, alas, managed to hold onto the sippycup whilst the portable, my cell, and the juice all hit the floor, resulting in an icky sticky mess.... and a poor battery connection in my cell phone. Why did the Sippy cup have to be the item which I maintained a firm hold on? Why couldn't I have prevented the stickiness by holding the juice, or prevented telephone damage by, say, holding the expensive electronics while the other junk landed on the floor. Grrr. Oh, well. For anyone who cares... if you can't get a hold of me on my cell, it's probably the juice's fault. |
Thurs, May 15, 2003 (1:10pm)Aaaah. It's the little things which make life worth living. Little things, like living with a potty-ninja. (Click on the pic to see Kalen wearing stealth-underwear). Speaking of ninjas, my brother gave me this link: www.RealUltimatePower.net Go. Learn everything about ninjas that you never needed to know. |
| Thurs, May 15, 2003 (10:10am) Payday. Mmm, good. So, this is my obligatory daily post to prove that I'm still alive. What to say... what to say..? I added a link to Arthur's blog at the top of my page, 'cuz I read it often enough. B'sides, he was kinda nice and linked me, too. Not like I noticed 'til recently.... he's said all these cool things about me and I didn't even know about it 'cuz he page doesn't load right when I use the link from chimerical.org. So now I've got my own link, and I can read his blog properly. Thanks for thinkin' of me, Art. I'm glad you really do exist. On the toddler front, Kale only screamed and carried on for an hour and a half last night, with just one brief nocturnal waking to complain about her lack of soother. Much better than the previous night. Maybe we'll have it down to a mere 45 minutes tonight. Last night was pretty good, despite the screaming. I hung out with a friend I really don't see nearly enough of. We watched Babylon 5 and talked gaming, and ya know.. stuff. Gonna get a haircut this eve. That thought alone will carry me through the day. Hey - when your daytime life revolves around little things like soothers and cheerios, a haircut is like a beacon of hope on the horizon. Later all. Seeya at BP's this evening. |
| Wed, May 14, 2003 (2:10pm) Okay - kids are down for naps. I thought I'd do a quick post. Last night was both satisfying and aggravating. Wally came over and fixed the settings on my Mac which were preventing it from printing properly. That was cool. Jay came over and we talked about plans for going out to Saskatchewan to build a cabin on the May Long weekend. I'm gonna have to do some fancy juggling for that, 'cuz MayQuest is the same weekend, but it'll be so nice to have a permanent structure at the Quad War site instead of having to set up a tent every time we go to an event out there. So that was a good conversation to have, too. But through all of Wally's visit, and the conversation with Jay, and well after both had left, I also had to deal with a shrieking, wailing, screaming child. This was less than pleasant. Ya see, Kalen dropped her soothers down the hot air register. She has been told on many occasions NOT to throw toys down the register. If she does, the toy gets taken away. She, being a stubborn little toddler, does it anyways. This time, instead of throwing a random toy down, she had to throw her soothers. Grrr. She LOVES her soothers - can't sleep without them. But I had to take them away. (Actually, 'taken them away' wasn't even an option for me. She threw them far enough down that I couldn't reach them at all. They stayed down the vent.) So she had to go to bed without her soothers. Man, she HATED that. Screamed for the better part of two hours, and cried herslef to sleep over the course of another hour. Then woke, realized she still didn't have any soothers, and repeated the whole process. It was not an easy night. The only way I kept from strangling her was to think about an article which Wally found on the 'Net for me. Everytime I remembered it, I'd think, "Things could be worse" and somehow I managed to keep up a smile. Here's a link to the article. I highly recommend you read it, whether you're a parent, or Star Wars fan, or the sort who got into trouble as a kid. |
| Wed, May 14, 2003 (1:45am) I have been informed that I must update my blog at least 3 times per day for the edification and amusement of the pinipeds in my life. I have been lax in my duties this past week. Perhaps I shall take my duties more seriously in the future. So why have I been so lax in my blogging of late? And why have I not been posting my "accomplishments of the day" every day? Because I've been to busy actually getting things done for a change, and thus havn't had time to write about it. Oh - and sleeping. I've been trying to work sleep back into my schedule, every other day, at least. So, for a quick recap, this is some of what I've been doing lately: Thursday's Accomplishment: Took my Mom out to New Asian Village for her birthday. Friday's Accomplishments: Bought fish. Drove to Don's and got my bag back from him. Saturday's Accomplishments: Submitted my Purgatory turn. Had Tom & Isaac & Robin over for a LEGO castle battle. Went out in the evening and played Star Wars LARP. (Reminder to self: must post pics of that sometime soon.) Sunday's Accomplishment: Slept in. Enjoyed Mother's Day. Went hot-tubbing. Mmmmmm. Monday's Accomplishment: Drove downtown to deal with some irritating financial stuff that had to be handled in person. Tuesday's Accomplishment: Took kids to the playground for over an hour so they could wear themselves out and I could drag tired kids back home, feed' em lunch, give 'em a bath, tuck them in for naps, and get a good rest myself. Wednesday's Accomplishment: Updating my blog for the second time this week. Yay. Yeah, between parenthood and my obsession with keeping this house from resembling a trailer-trash hovel, I don't have a lot of time to do anything horrendously exciting, like skydiving or becoming President of the United States. Although, on the topic of being famous, I got mentioned in Anna's Blog again! Yay me. Check out the "Thursday, May 8" entry. Anna says I'm obsessed with dice. I'm not gonna get into that right now, but it's cool that Anna mentions me from time to time. Like I'm important, or something. Waitasec - Yes, I AM going to get into that right now: Me?!? Obsessed with dice?? Where'd she get THAT idea? I am NOT obsessed with dice! Okay, so I happen to own a few dice. I own WAY fewer than most gamers I know, including (but not limited to): Jeff, Aaron, James, and probably Kris. Admittedly, some of my dice are particlarly cool dice. And some were a tad expensive. But that doesn't mean I'm obsessive. It's not like I cast ritual blesings on my dice under the light of the solstice moon, or keep them in a velvet case and only allow them to be touched by carefully cleansed hands. Nor do I train my dice like some gamers I know. On the other hand, I do have certain dice which I like for certain things... Like I use my black dice for actions my character is doing at night. And I recently had to go buy more blue dice for Seventh Sea... but that was 'cuz I needed some more d10s anyways, after the kids lost some of mine. And I'm a bit prosessive of my glow-in-the-dark d20.. but that's 'cuz you can't find those around most places anymore. It's a collector's item. Sorta like my nice pewter dice which I had imported, just for me. But that's neither here nor there. My point is, I'm not a prime example of someone who is obsessed with dice. Really, I'm not. On a d20, I'm only likely to be obsessed on a roll of 17 or less. That's not even into the range of critical hits, right? If ya wanna talk about me and 'obsessive' you should try taking away my salt. (grin) |
| Mon, May 12, 2003 (11:20am) For the record, I have an incredible husband. Yesterday was Mother's Day. We'd stayed up 'til nearly 3am on Saturday night The dinner thing was good, but I had to leave right after dessert to go to work. After work, instead of coming home, I went hot-tubbing at my Mom's. When I got home, I discovered that he'd cleaned the house, Cleared all the (many) dishes from supper, Wiped down the table and counters, Put away the extra chairs, washed the baby bottles and sippy cups and put them away, cleaned up all the toys, and generally left the place looking neat and inviting. It was a very nice treat to come home to. And this morning I discovered that, in addition to cleaning the house last night, he'd also done the laundry. AND folded it, too. I love him, soooooo much. Oh, yeah - He also got me flowers. |
| Thurs, May 8, 2003 (11:00am) Man, am I ever wasted. I had friends over last night to play Seventh Sea, and the game went well. We started before 8pm, and finished 5 minutes before 11pm. It was good. There was intrigue, seduction, poison, political rivalry, and all the stuff that makes Vodacce such a fun place to be. Since the game finished early (which had been my goal - some of my players prefer to go home before the 2am end-time which Tierel commonly ran to) we sat and chatted for a while after. Some of the players went home, but Star, Dina, Dan and I just loitered and laughed and talked 'til well after midnight. My husband (recently returned from his evening gaming excursion) joined us then, and we talked some more. And some more. And some more. Topics ranged from dating historys to evil roomates to how to pack and label boxes when you're moving. We talked until after 3am. So much for an early evening. I got to bed sometime after 3:30am. I lay awake 'til after 4 thinking. Then I was awake from 4 'til 5 trying to get Kalen to go back to sleep. Finally, after 5am, I managed to crash and didn't wake 'til the kids did at 8:45am. So, yeah. I'm kinda tired this morning. But ya know - it was worth it. I haven't sat and chattedwith friends into the wee hours like that for ages. Life is good. |
| Tues, May 6, 2003 (10:35pm) Kay, the day is going much better now. After last getting offline, I spent some time bemoaning my fate, and then got off my lazy butt and did something about it: I put the kids down for naps, and sewed curtains for Connors room. This makes my world a better place. Now Connor's room is dark enough that he can actually sleep in it. So I moved his sleeping things into his room. Then I moved a pile of blankets and flannels from the change table into our closet, so he could no longer throw them all over. Once that was off the floor, I was able to sort the laundry. I ran the dirty stuff, and folded the clean stuff, and put it away in the dresser drawers. I also managed to remove two armloads of clothes he'd outgrown from those same drawers and put them into storage in the closet, where Connor will no longer be able to play with them from his crib, since he doesn't sleep there anymore. Whew. Now, as long as the fox and the hen were never left on the same side of the river together, we're doing good. My world is also better 'cuz Shades offered to watch the kids while I did my grocery shopping. This was very kind of him. It also meant that I put my shopping off 'til he got home from work and thus had to endure supper-time crowds at the store, but I was in a calmer mood by then. Oh, Shades also pointed out that this is, in fact, Tuesday, unlike my original posting claimed. So I've changed the dateline for today's blog entry to reflect that. Still feels like a Monday, though. Bah - I'm very tired. It was worth it to skip my nap considering everything I accomplished, but I might just fall over soon. Good thing I don't have to drive anywhere. Accomplishments of the Day: Sewed curtains. Moved Connor's bedroom. Bought almost $200 of groceries. AND made chocolate chip cookies with my daughter. |
| Tues, May 6, 2003 (1:35pm) A list of things which are wrong with My Universe, Today.
|
| Mon, May 5, 2003 (10:45am) New survey up. Old survey results posted. Also fixed minor typos and acronyming errors in my earlier post of the day. What do you least want to find lying forgotten in some hidden corner of your dwelling?Out of on overwhelming 8 respondants (yeah, note the sarcasm): 3 said 'Mouldering food' Only 1 said 'Something soiled by body fluids' 3 said they'd least want to find a roomate whom they'd kicked out previously. 1 replied with 'No comment', adding "You know.. This survey is kind of disconcerting.. given that you're implying that the list is something thats bad to find.. I find everything on that list at least once a week." No one seemed to particularly care if they found 'Months-old dirty laundry'. I wonder if this is simply due to the fact that stinky crunchy socks pale in comparison to the previous options, or due to repeated exposure dulling the gag relex. |
| Mon, May 5, 2003 (12:50am) A list of things that are wrong in My Universe:
A list of things that are actually pretty good in My Universe:
Ooooh. Good. The people are leaving now. And someone turned the bathroom fan off, and is taking the spare babies away. Life is looking up. Maybe I'll consider being a less grouchy person soon. Maybe. |
| Sun, May 4, 2003 (1:05pm) Topic for today: My Kings of Chaos character. I'm rather fond of the KoC game. It's really a silly waste of time, truth be told, but there's something relaxing about attacking hordes of orcs at the end of a hectic work shift. And I had a pleasant surprise the day before, when I discovered that I have not one underling, but two! I don't know who this new player is, but thank you, whoever you are! Someday, the forces of Niles (and Darius) Pentaghast shall rule the world. Thanks as well to the many people who have been clicking my KoC link to help my pathetic little army grow into the raging fighting force which it is today. By tomorrow, my forces should top 100 men. That makes me happy. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I no longer need my throngs of worshipful admirers to spend precious seconds every day clicking my click-thru link. Thanks to those who've done it in the past, and to those who still feel like doing it, but my unit production is into the high teens and I don't need to rely on daily clicks anymore. I will, of course, keep clicking on the click-thru links of my minons, and of people who have their link posted on their pages, 'cuz I have no life. Having said that, I think I'll go play some solitaire. Mmmmm.. or maybe have a shower. Yeah, a shower would be good. |
| Sat, May 3, 2003 (11:30am) I went to see X-men last night, with Bregon and Arthur and Tony. The movie was excellent. Much violence, many female bodies in skin-tight costumes. Several good one-liners. I'd see it again. Due to my schedule, though, I probably won't get the chance to see it again 'til I buy it on DVD. One of the cooler things about going to catch the flick was meeting Arthur in Real Life. I've heard a lot about him (from Bregon, mostly) and read his ramblings, and see his responses to my surveys, but this was the first time I got to see that he actually exists. He's larger than I expected... Looms real well. I must make a note to not piss off the night auditor at Travelodge when Art is on shift. Hmmm. Then again, he also looks like he'd be a good person to tease and torment. I mean, he lives with Bregon... he must be somewhat used to that already. On another topic, I also saw the promo-poster for Pirates of the Carribean at the theater. Oooh, I want to see that. Gotta get a whole bunch of my Seventh Sea playing friends together, dress up like Pirates, and invade. July 9th. Wanna come? |