Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of June 2003. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Sun, June 29, 2003 (11:55pm) Got home from Saskatchewan this evening. We decided not to stay out the extra couple days after all, due to slightly sick children, insanely hot weather (you just can't get much work done on a cabin when it's so hot that you melt after 5 minutes of physical activity), and the fact that at least one of us had to come home anyways to bring Bregon back into the city so he could work first thing Monday morning. We had a great time, though. Cool things about the Quad Weekend:
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| Fri, June 27, 2003 (4:55pm) Mmmm. I just had a two and a half hour nap. This bodes well for out roadtrip tonight. BTW, Jeanne: I wanted to let you know that Cassie had a good bath last night, so she probably doesn't need one for a couple more days. (I figured it was as easy to post that here, as email ya). If you need any help with bathing the wee one (and your roomate is in the middle of moving and can't help) then I would be more than pleased to come over and give ya a hand. |
| Fri, June 27, 2003 (2:25pm) I'm packed and ready to head out to Quad War this weekend. Just gotta wait for Bregon and Brother Hamish to get here before we all head out. In the meantime, I think i'll take a nap. The Cassandra Report: Cassandra has been successfully picked up by Jeanne, who will be taking care of her for the next week. I managed to forget to pass along two tins of Enfalac formula, and Cassie's sleepy dog, though. I think Star and Eric have spare formula at their house. If not, there's easily enough cash left to buy some. I do hope the lack of her stuffed toy does not cause Cassie undue problems going to sleep (I've seen her sleep without it before). However, if it does: Jeanne, you're welcome to break into my place while I'm gone, and get it from the front steps. Or have Dan do the break-in. Ya see, Myke has a key to our house, and Dan would have no problem getting that key from her, and since we live on the same block, he could just pop over and rob us bli.. I mean, fetch the dog, and get it to you before Cassandra's screaming drove you insane. If it came to that. Accomplishment of the Day: Sewed two more cloaks! The one i got done late last night is a good heavy fleece-lined claok, done in black and wine, with silver trim. Looks very good. The other Myke made this morning: another toddler-sized cloak. So, we've got a dozen cloaks to sell (or display, if no one is buying) at Quad War. Yay. |
| Thurs, June 26, 2003 (1:45pm) I got a most amusing bit of junk email yesterday: From: (deleted)What a pity my supplier is fresh out of Dimensional Warp Generators after that last LARP we put on (sigh)... Accomplishment of the Day: The 10th cloak is done!!!!! YAY!!! And I've still got one more cut out which I might finish before our departure for Quad War on Friday. And Myrialynn has another one she might finish, too. Overshooting the target would be very cool. |
| Thurs, June 26, 2003 (12:45am) This is really Wednesday's entry. We just had a late night at work, and I didn't get home to post anything 'til 40 minutes ago. Grr. A quick set of apologies to those individuals who wke me from my nap today: I'm not sure who you are, but if I said anything important to you which I ought to remember, please call me again... because I only have a vague recollection of the phone ringing, and me talking, and hanging up again. I do remember Star calling. It took me a few minutes to figure out who I was speaking to, though. My first thought was, "Ah.. a friend. Good Friend. Must talk. Talk more important than sleep.". My second thought was, "No.. talk not more important than sleep. Besides. Is not Star. Star somewhere else. Go back to sleep." And somewhere along the line, I woke up enough to think, "Wait... IS Star. Is calling from far, far, away. Is still alive. Good. Eric alive too. Also good. Wake up enough to tell them their baby is alive, and ask if their car is also still alive. All very alive. Good, good. Worth being awake for. Sleep after hanging up." I'm not really sure I waited for hanging up before falling asleep, but I am left with the impression that they called from an hour out of Columbus, Ohio, and that Star was eagerly awaiting civilization and an internet connection. Following that thread, we now present The Cassandra Report: Cassadra is still quite alive. She has recovered nicely from her wee finger nick (I doubt she even knew she'd nicked her finger, except that we put a band-aid on her and she spent every free moment of the next 24 hours trying to remove it.) She's been eating very well... her typical breakfast is a handful of Cheerios, a quarter-piece of toast, 4-6 ounces of juice, bits of cheese or liverworst toast from my plate, and anything which Kalen reaches over and puts in her mouth (Kalen loves to feed the baby.) Lunch is more of the same, or a couple ounces of chopped-up Kraft Dinner (which she loves) or whatever soup is being dished out (she eats as much as Connor does.. but Connor's not a big soup fan). By supper she's petering out a little, and usually only managed 3-4 ounces of whatever is put on her plate. It usually devolves into her shouting and throwing things off the highchair to demonstrate that she is, in fact, done. Snacks are haphazard throughout the day and usually consist of scouring the floor for Cheerios which Connor has spilled, or making EEP!ing noises until we give her a handful of CheeseNips. Hmmm.. there was something else I wanted to post. Something work related..... Can't rememebr now. Oh, yes: I was reading the warning label on our Autoclave at work. It says the Autoclave is not to be use to sterilize liquids or volatile substances, or any material for which it was not originally intended. I thought the last bit was a kinda cheezy tack-on. Like saying "This device is intended only for the use for which it is intended.". Real informative. And then I got to thinking about what else one might possibly want to do with an Autoclave.... it's sort of like a little oven. Maybe a person could bake muffins in it! Well, really, it's a mini pressure-cooker. Could I cook Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs in it? I'd be the envy of all the medical staff! Well, except the clinic manager, who would point to the "material for which it is not intended" section of the warning label, and then deduct the cost of a new Autoclave from my next several months' paycheques. (sigh). No Sweet & Sour Autoclaved Spare Ribs for me, I guess. |
| Tues, June 24, 2003 (10:25pm) My husband has just informed me my butt is 14 inches wide. The width (or lack thereof, thank-you) is not the point I want to make with this post. The point is, I am married to the sort of person who will lean over with a tape measure while I am sitting on a set of steps which he just built, and measure the width of my butt. He claims it was so he could see if a person would be able to sit in the middle of the steps, and not have their butt smacked by someone opening our cabin door(s). He followed this up by informing me that I could probably do it. He, however, with his 16 inch wide butt, could not. I love that man. I really do. More Accomplishments: Painted a table blue. Packed a whole bunch of stuff for Quad. Folded the baby-laundry which has been sitting in a pile, unfolded, for the better part of 3 weeks. |
| Tues, June 24, 2003 (5:05pm) Ya know... there are days that owning your own home seems a lot less fun. Like today, when I paid Property Taxes: $2,156.13. Ug. I need to enroll in their monthly payment plan. Shades stayed home from work today, so he could get some stuff done in prep for Quad War. It's been really nice seeing him during the day, for a change. Normally I only see him when he's tired after getting home from work. Or on weekends, when I'm tired because of work. I've decided that I love him very much. If he wasn't already married, I'd propose to him.  Myke came over again today to work on cloaks, and brought her daughter Shandra along. Cassandra and Shandra look so much alike.Their names sound similar, too, because Cassandra's nickname is 'Sanna'. Kalen calls them both 'Sandwa'. We're not sure if she actually realizes that they're two different babies. Despite the difference in age (Shandra is 8 months, Cassie is just over a year) they're about the same size, and they both have brown hair, and round little baby faces. So, we dressed them in identical outfits, and took pictures. Kalen looked at the two of them, sitting in the same chair, and said, "Look! TWO Sandwas!". It was cute. (Cassie is on the left, Shandra on the right. Here's another pic)The Cassandra Report: Shandra and Cassandra had a great time playng together today. We had to seperate them a few times for hair-pulling, but they were really pretty good. Cassie needed to go down for her nap early due to all the excitement, and was ravenously hungry for lunch when she got up. Cassie also got to experience frozen lemonade popsicle today. Oh, man! The faces she made! Pity I couldn't balance both a camera and a sticky baby at the same time... it would have made for great pics. Cassie did, alas, get one minor injury today: She nicked her finger on the air vent. It couldn't have hurt her much, she didn't cry at all. She just kept happily playing. We didn't even notice until she'd left a trial of bloody fingerprints from the livingroom to the kitchen. A tiny bandaid later, and all was well. Accomplishment of the Day: Another cloak done. That's 9 down, just one more to go! And I also finished that current project which I'd been working on yesterday. Yay! |
| Mon, June 23, 2003 (10:25pm) Looong day today. I'm taking care of Cassandra for a week while Eric and Star are off to Origins, and I'm just not used to watching three kids. It's LOTS of fun, but you've constantly got to juggle kids and sippy-cups and bowls of Cheerios and make sure one isn't hitting the other, and tell the third to give back the toy it stole from the second, and make sure the first hasn't forgotten to use the potty like a 'big girl' in the meanwhile. I think that I'll post a Cassandra Report daily, so if Eric and Star read this from some little dive of an Internet cafe on their road trip, they can see their daughter is being well cared for. The Cassandra Report: Cassie has been settling in well. She eats every Cheerio she can get her hands on. She devours books. Kalen absolutely adores having her around, and is quick to re-insert Cassie's soother if it should accidentally fall out of her mouth. Connor has been really good and only bowled her over a couple times. At first, Cassie seemed a wee bit intimidated by our monstrous Connor, but now she's holding her own. Sorting out naps for everyone is a bit of a challenge, but we seem to be getting a schedule going. All is well. Lessee...what else did I do today, beside watch kids? I did some more sewing (yay!) I bought curtain rods for our cabin. I picked up more disks for my digital camera. Still haven't done an ounce of packing for Quad War, though. Gotta get started on that soon. Accomplishment of the Day: I sewed a pair of curtains for our bedroom in the cabin. And I did some work on a current project, so it's almost finished now. And I sewed a toddler cloak to replace the one I kept for Kalen. So, the cloak total sits at 8, with only 2 more to go... and one of those is already cut out, and waiting to be sewn. Maybe I'll go work on it right now. |
| Sun, June 22, 2003 (10:15pm) Lesson of the Day: Do NOT Bite Countertops. Now, those of you who know me, and my biting habits, might think this is a lesson I've learned through personal experience. Not so. On this occasion, I've learned through the experience of another. This 'other' happens to be my cousin... which just goes to show that biting runs in the family, so it's really not all my fault. Enough of that. Here's the story, as it was told to me at Sunday Dinner: My cousin (whom I shall refer to as 'Pete') had a friend over a little while ago. The two of them (both teenage-twentyish) were playing on the computer os some such innocent thing. But the friend was sitting on his chair and leaning forward in such a way that it made him look like he was going to bit the counter which he was sitting in front of. Pete told him "Don't bite the counter!" The friend replied with something to the effect of, "I wasn't gonna bite the counter. They don't even taste good." Pete then made some suggestion about how counters taste or not, and the upshot was that the two of them ended up biting the counter together. Naturally, this evolved into a display of manliness, with growling and snarling, and a lot of fierce counter-biting. (Like many members of our extended family, Pete can get rather carried away with things, and infects others with his foolishness.) Eventually, though, they decided 'enough of this' and stopped biting the counter. Pete's friend unclenched his jaw, and released the counter in a reasonable fashion. Pete, who'd left some nice dentition marks in the counter by this point, also pulled back from the counter... but he forgot to release his grip first. He pulled back dramatically, and knocked out his 4 bottom teeth on the small lip which ran beneath the counter edge. That's right. My cousin knocked out FOUR teeth, in a vicious counter biting incident. I love my family. And I love our suppertime conversations. (Other hot topics included: Getting your cell phone stuck on your underwear, exploding the back window of a van by slamming a door too hard, and whether a person really needs fine china as well as casual entertaining dinnerware and family dining dinnerware, or can't we all just eat off paper plates?) |
| Sat, June 21, 2003 (10:40pm) D.C. Update: I've go a plane ticket! YAY! I leave Edmonton at 9:30am on Friday July 4, and get to Baltimore (after a plane change in Toronto) at 6:42pm. I leave my dear sweet lesbian ninja pirate comrades at 7:05pm on Sunday July 6, and return home (after doing the changeover in Toronto again) at 9:55pm. This means I'll need babysitting for the kids all day Friday (well, from when Shades goes to work, 'til when he gets home, at least) but I won't need too much recovery time on Monday morning. Unless, of course, I don't bother to sleep at all while I'm in the states. On other fronts, I'm happy 'cuz I got a raise at work. Well, we all did... it was one of those inflation raises. But it was a full 50 cents, so I'm not complaining. Sure beats the raises some of my friends have been given for inflation adjustment. The rest of my life has been taken up working and getting things ready for Quad War. I've still got a lot of packing to do. There's so much stuff to haul out to the cabin. Luckily, some of the stuff will be able to STAY there, afterwards. Oooh - and I bought a foam bed-mattress for our makeshift bed, out at the cabin. Gonna go crash now. I'm tired, and I work again in the morning. Accomplishment of the Day: One more cloak done. That's 7 total, 3 more to go. But I've only got 4 more days to do it in. (I work Sunday, and I wanna be at the Quad site on Friday). |
| Fri, June 20, 2003 (1:50am) Things. And stuff. I got to do some casting at work. T'was fun. The doctor looked at the cast on a girl's broken leg, said, "We should add a few layers for a walking heel, and the bottom along here needs to be fixed where its worn through." then he looked at me and asked, "You can do that, right?". Well, I've seen it done dozens of times. It's not that complicated. And it's not like I'm setting a broken leg. So I said Sure. And I did the casting all by myself. That was cool. D.C. Update: Looks like the plane ticket is gonna be $900+. Ack. Well, I s'pose I can pick up a few more shifts. Alas, it probably means working on more Thursday evenings. Earlier today (meaning Thurs) I sewed clasps on the 2 cloaks Myke and I finished Tuesday. Yay. I've decided I want to take some of my very best girlfriends in the whole world, and drag them all out of Fairmont hotsprings, and rent a condo, and just hang out together for a week. And, ya know... bond. And not be responsible for the world, or have to worry about money, or think about boyfriends/husbands/fiances, or watch the kids, or go to work, or anything. Just talk, and hold eachother, and reassure ourselves that the world isn't such a bad place. Support from the sisterhood, and all that. Ack - what kind of crack am I on..? That sounds terribly female. Couldn't have been written by me. Not to mention that I've booked all the time off work that I possibly can this summer. Really, really, freaking tired. Going to bed now. |
| Thurs, June 19, 2003 (11:35am) Tired today. (Yawn) Last night Eric and Atwood and I sat down and talked about this Dungeon Quest we've been planning for October. Looks like we're gonna go for it. More details will be forthcoming at the next Council meeting, for anyone who cares. Or hassle me about it, and I can babble at ya via email. Bah - I work tonight. And tomorrow night, too. And dayshifts on the weekend. It's gonna be a long and tiring few days. |
| Wed, June 18, 2003 (6:50pm) So, I'm still recovering from our weekend of cabin building. It was a lot of fun and I'd do it again... but not for at least another week. Getting the kids to sleep in an unfamiliar place was... challenging. Getting them to settle back to sleep after waking in the middle of the night and realizing they were still in an unfamiliar place was even more challenging. But we managed. Hopefully the cabin will be less unfamiliar next time we go out there, and the noctural screaming will calm down. We got a LOT of work done. My parents were out at the Quad site on Saturday morning to work on their cain, and helped watch the kids when Shades arrived with them the same afternoon. I worked 'til 4pm and didn't get out of Edmonton 'til 5:30, so I arrived at the site around 8:30. By that point, they'd already done pretty much all the insulation and putting up the OSB over the insulation. On Sunday, with my Mom's help, we managed to primer-paint many of the interior walls, and Mom painted the room which will be used as my shop. I worked on some in-set shelves in both the shop and bedroom (since the wall between the two is 6 inches deep, and doesn't need to be insulated). We also tossed some make-shift curtains fo the bedroom window, so the room could be darkened when the kids went down for naps. That was good. Sunday evening Shades and I took the kids into Lloydminster for supper at BP's. (It was Shades' birthday, and Father's Day to boot, so we wanted to do something special). Mom and Dad packed their stuff, and were gone by the time we got back (around 9pm). We put the kids down to sleep (they were exhausted) and enjoyed a quiet evening of chatting and book-reading and tea-drinking and being all alone out in the middle of Saskatchewan with no phones or computers or nothing. It was very relaxing. Monday morning we'd intended to finish up a bit of the interior walls which hadn't been done on the weekend, and I wanted to put up one more set of shelves. However, our plans were rearranged when we discovered that the work crew up at the castle was short a couple of hands, and needed assistance with pouring concrete. So Shades and I abondonned our cabin work and helped oil board and pour concrete. The kids were actually pretty good during this - they only made little bits of mischief, and no-one fell into the concrete. Although Kalen did try. The bulk of the work was done by noon. We invited Stu and Shannon for lunch (Shades cooked. I love him.) The kids went down for naps after that, and Shades and I were left doing whatever cabin-work could be done without waking the kids. This meant mostly measuring and sawing and painting. The kids got up after 4pm (they were really tired) and we slapped up the interior walls which we had pre-cut and painted, and got the camp packed up so we could go home soon. It was getting later than we'd anticipated, though, so we didn't quite get everything done that we'd wanted. One piece of interior wall (the one where I wanted to put bookshelves) just didn't get finished. My shelving bits are piled next to the wall waiting to be put up as soon as the wall is up. We still don't have doors or windows. Half of one wall still needs insulation and OSB over it. The common room needs painting. A lot of things need cleaning and rearranging, 'cuz there's still construction materials lying around. BUT - It's livable, and waterproof, and warm enough, and we'll be able to use it at Quad. Accomplishment of the Day: Myke and I both finsished the cloaks we'd been working on (minus clasps - still got to sew those on yet). So the total of finished cloaks sits at SIX! We're over half-way! four more to go in the next week and a half. I think we can manage it. |
| Tues, June 17, 2003 (6:45pm) I've been sitting here at the keyboard for nearly two hours, alternately staring into space or playing solitaire, while trying to think of something witty and informative to write. Ain't gonna happen. I'm freakin' beat from spending 3 (fun filled, work-packed) days at the Quad site. I've had no nap today. I spent half an hour standing in the hot, hot midday sun on an asphalt-smelly parking lot so I could give an witness report on an accident which happened right in front of me while I was driving around doing my errands (thank goodness Mom was watching the kids - I couldn't have handled grumpy kids for half an hour in the heat). I have toddlers running in circles around me 'cuz they're happy to be home, but cranky and starving 'cuz they're completely off their sleep and meal schedules. Screw blogging. I'm gonna make something to eat. Have some good caffeine. Maybe beg a backrub from Bregon when he comes over later tonight. Then sleep. Seeya tomorrow. |
| Fri, June 13, 2003 (11:45pm) Sewed some more today - I've got one cloak halfway to completion, and Myke got halfway done the one she was working on. So that's almost like having another full cloak finished, right? I've also received word that our cabin does, indeed, have shingles on it now. We're going out for Sat afternoon to Monday afternoon to do some more work on it... like insulation, interior walls, and maybe getting an undercoat of paint slapped on. Of course, we still need doors and windows. For the moment they're boarded up with plywood, or stapled over with a layer of thick clear plastic. But I doubt that'll change this weekend. We'll need someone who knows what he's doing for those things. Hrm..... I wonder what Wally is doing this weekend? Accomplishment of the Day: Packed for going out to the cabin this weekend, with kids and all. |
| Fri, June 13, 2003 (1:25pm) Playing with the format of my weblog, at Wally's request. The current day's entry(s) will be in a seperate table. All older entries will be below the red double line. Archives will still be in the archives section (and I'll try to dump the bulk of the weblog into the archives on a regular basis, instead of once every other month.) Oh - I also editted my links at the top again. Happy Friday the Thirteenth, everyone. |
| Thurs, June 12, 2003 (8:30pm) I'm in a good mood today. We just had a meeting with the bank about our mortgage - it should be paid off in the next 3 years. We'd actually hoped to pay it off this year, but some of the money ear-marked for that went into building our Cabin, at the Quad War site. Speaking of the cabin, my Uncle is supposedly out there today and tomorrow with some of his work crew, putting up shingles on the cabin. (My unlce owes my Mom a few favors, which is why he's doing this for us. All the same, we're going to be covering the cost of his gas money and supplies, and something extra on top. We haven't figured out exactly how much yet, but we'll work something out). I'm really looking forward to going out to the cabin this weekend and doing some more work. We're taking the kids this time, and their grandparents will be along (working on their cabin right next to us) and I think it's gonna be fun. S'all for now. I'm off to BP's. |
| Wed, June 11, 2003 (11:50pm) People like to ask nurses questions. I know this both from working in clinic, and having friends who are nurses. It seems nurses are more approachable, and people will ask them things that they won't mention to their doctors. Maybe that's 'cuz doctors are such busy people, or because nurses don't seem as threatening. Or maybe it's just 'cuz the patients want something to talk about while they're getting stitches removed, or waiting for a dressing change. Who knows. But we get a lot of questions (some of them thinly veiled as casual conversation) as well as people asking straight-out for advice. Most of them go something like this: "So... my baby has a rash on his arms. What do you think that's from?" or "So... when did the doctor say I was supposed to get my stitches taken out? He was talking too fast and I didn't catch that." or "So... what do you think of the Depo-Provera shot? Does it work as well as The Pill? Should I try it?" or "So... my son is planning to get a tongue piercing. How can I convince him he'll ruin his mouth by doing that? He just won't listen to me!" or the more amusing, "So... I've been told a kidney sells for 50 grand on the black market. How would a person go about selling their kidney, anyway?" or "Can a person get warts in their mouth if they kiss a guy's penis while he has genital warts?" After a while you get to the point that hearing the drawn-out, "So....." in a conversation causes you to steel your nerves for whatever topic is about to come up. Still, there are some things you don't really expect to hear in day-to-day conversation at a walk-in clinic. Like: "So... My daughter has decided that she's Otaku." "...Really?" I reply, looking at this proper-looking lady in her late 30's. "And does she know what that word means?" "Oh, yes. She says it means she's a fan of Japanese Animation." I pause for a moment. "I guess that's technically accurate. I've heard it translated more often as, 'FanBoy'" ...I close my mouth before the rest of that sentence rolls off my tongue, "As in the phrase, 'Bite me, FanBoy.'" Instead I ask, "Does she watch a lot of anime?" "Oh, quite a bit. She's completely taken with the Japanese culture. She picks up Japanese words and phrases from all over, and she collects pictures of art, and she got a friend to write out her name in Japanese characters for her. She was thrilled by that. She also insists on watching her videos in Japanese, with English subtitles." Yeah - that sounds sufficiently Otaku to me. "So, what do you think?" The mom asks, with an undertone of, "Is this normal? Should I be worried?" "I think you should encourage her." I reply, keeping my face as straight as I can. "Studying foreign culture is very educational. Not to mention that if she ever decides to pursue a career in it, such as teaching English in Japan, there's a decent amount of money to be made." "Really?" The Mom asks. "Well it does keep her off the streets. And at least I know she isn't sneaking out to the bar, or making out with boys, if she's at home watching her videos." "You know," I say, in as friendly a manner as I can, "She'd probably enjoy going to an anime convention. There's on coming up soon, called 'Animethon'..." "You mean that one in July, at Grant MacEwan?" the mom asks. I nod, since I'm not entirely certain when it is, but the date & place sound right. "My daughter has had that marked on our calendar for months. She went last year, too." "Excellent." I say, unable to keep a smile off my face. "I know a lot of the guys who put on the Convention. They're a good crew. I'm sure your daughter will enjoy this year's Animethon - they've got a lot of great stuff planned for it." "Oh, I'm so glad to hear that." The Mom says, seeming quite pleased that her daughter's hobby/vice is understandable and socially acceptible to at least one other woman. "Maybe I'll go with her this year. All this anime stuf actually sounds rather interesting." Well, there's another 'cool Mom' in the making. I hope she enjoys the Con, and isn't too turned off by all the Otaku. |
| Wed, June 11, 2003 (1:30am) Hmm... I have a small problem with the cloak I made yesterday. Ya see, it was just a small cloak - toddler sized - and I've been looking at it a bit. And a bit more. And a bit more. And I've decided I don't want to sell it. I want to keep it for Kalen. We can't have the cobbler's children go barefoot, after all. So, subtract 1 from the cloaks total (sigh). And then add 2 more to the total again! - I just made a small cloak to replace the toddler one. Since that went so quick, I started on one of the larger projects: a reversible cloak of deep forest green and rusty red cotton twills. I haven't got the clasp(s) on it yet, but it looks good. So good, in fact, that I cut the pattern for another reversible cloak, for me to work on later this week. Accomplishment of the Day: The cloak total now sits at four (six more to go). Plus, Kalen's got a real cool cloak to wear to Quad War herself. |
| Tues, June 10, 2003 (2:40pm) I also (finally) got around to processing some pics my Mom. She wanted me to post them for Iodi to look at. They're from her recent weekend at the Quad site (and from an earlier weekend, which happened to be on the same roll of film). I've tossed them into a folder in my Random Directory. |
| Tues, June 10, 2003 (1:55pm) D.C. Update: I have officially scheduled the weekend of July 5/6th off work. I am working on Tues, July 8th and Fri, July 11th instead (yay - I won't have to do a shift Monday evening, while still jetlagged!). Now I get to book a plane ticket. Oh, and find 3 or 4 more shifts to pick up in order to help cover the costs of the trip. I think I can do that, though. Accomplishment of the Day: One more cloak down. Seven to go. |
| Mon, June 9, 2003 (11:45pm) Oh, yeah - I forgot to post this earlier: Shades has booked our plane tickets for Gen-Con. We're going! We're really going! From July 23 - 28th... a whole 5 days of child-free gaming frenzy! It makes me feel like a teenager again. And best of all, we'll be going together. Ooooh, we might even get to do boyfriend/girlfriend stuff together! |
| Mon, June 9, 2003 (7:30pm) When I started my weblog I only gave out the address to a select few (it's not connected to my main web page or domain, ya know). I foolishly assumed that it would be a private little corner of the web for me and a few friends to play in. Not so, alas. I've been linked by a couple friends, who are linked to the web in general, and search engines have allowed people to find my page. That means it's being indexed and filed for future reference by web spiders. This has necessitated a little editting throughout my weblog. Any post referring to my place of employment no longer identifies it (or other similar clinics) by name. It is now simply referred to a "the clinic" or "our walk-in clinics". This is so a Web-Search for the name of the clinic will not pull up my web page and my ocassional venting about job frustrations or our more colorful clientelle. It will, alas, also mean that the good things I have to say about my place of work are missed by search engines. But that's less likely to lead to disciplinary action if it's somehow traced back to me. That being said, I have something to vent about: Yesterday, while I was working my usual Sunday evening shift, the receptionist asked me to take a call with a "nursing question". We often get people calling us for medical advice - sometimes we can help them, more often we refer them to other community resources, like the Capital Health Link line. I always like to see if I can help, though, because I know the LINK line tends to have a 15-minute hold period before you can get through to a nurse. So I picked up the phone, and the conversation went something like this: "Nurse, can you help me? I missed a couple days of my birth control pills, so I took them all this morning. Now I feel real dizzy. Do you think it has something to do with the pills?" I breathe a sigh as a put the telephone down. At least, I tell myself, at least she seems to have learned something. Maybe nobody ever took the time to explain it to her before. Hopefully she'll lead a more fulfilling and less overdosing life from this point on. All the same, I really hope she doesn't accidentally breed. |
| Mon, June 9, 2003 (3:20pm) D.C. Update: I finally got in contact with the one nurse I'd been still waiting to hear from. She's working at her other job and can't take the July shifts. Merde. So, it looks like I'll be talking to the one nurse who was willing to switch shifts with me, make the switch, and then spend the next few days figuring out how to deal with the Monday/Tuesday shifts. At least it means that I can probably go to DC! Woohoo! ...Gotta look into flight times and costs, now. |
| Sun, June 8, 2003 (1:10pm) Editted some of my links at the top of the page. I'm not really playing Kings of Chaos anymore (sorry for ditching on anyone who was really following that saga... but I know it wasn't many of you). Cyndyr, you're welcome to attack my character at your whim. There will be no retaliation. |
| Sun, June 8, 2003 (12:50pm) Yesterday was a very good day. Since the weather was sunny, but not too hot, we took the kids to the park and let them play in the playground for an hour or so. They had a great time. When we got home, I'd meant to feed 'em lunch and put 'em down for naps, but Shades was doing some work in the yard, so I let the kids play in the yard while I mucked around with my garden. Shades took the kids in an hour later, fed 'em, and put 'em down for naps. I kept working in the yard and by the time I was done, my garden was effectively weed-free. I had a chance for a shower and even grab a half-hour nap before going to work. It was good. Today, I am sore and stiff and slightly sunburnt and more than a little fatigued. But I'm in a very good mood. Color me content. Accomplishment of the Day: Watched Angel Sanctuary - very pretty anime. Been meaning to watch it since Angel Sorayama told me about it. But man, is it ever full of Angst! I haven't experienced so much soul-wrenching angst outside of a goth-convention. Angst, angst, angst. |
| Sat, June 7, 2003 (11:50pm) D.C. Update: Heard back from one of the 2 RNs which I was waiting to hear from - she can't take the shifts. Still waiting to hear back from the one who owes me some shifts and has been really good about shift trading with me in the past... But I notice on the work schedule that she is working 0 days between now and mid-July. This suggests to me that she's on some sort of prolonged vacation. This does not bode well for getting her to cover my shifts, either. Grrr. However, I also talked briefly with one of the RNs who I knew couldn't take the shifts (she's scheduled 3 days solid before the weekend, and 5 days solid after). She has agreed to maybe possibly take my shifts on Sat/Sun if I take her evening shifts on Mon/Tues. That would give her 5 shifts in a row, followed by 3 in a row. It's do-able. But that presents me with a new set of problems: finding childcare for the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday so that I can go to work for those shifts at 3pm before Shades comes home from his job at 5:30pm, AND figuring out how to catch a red-eye flight from DC, watch the kids all day Mon, and then work 'til 11pm the same eve, without turning into a pumpkin due to sheer fatigue. It's a problem I can work on, though.... |
| Sat, June 7, 2003 (12:45am) Played D&D 'til too late. Not waaay too late, but late enough that I was having trouble reading the numbers on my dice. Time for bed. Gotta work tomorrow. D.C. Update: Still not looking good. But since I'm working this weekend, I might be able to talk to a couple of the nurses there that I couldn't catch on the phone. Maybe. Accomplishment of the Day: Sewed another cloak - well, more of a cape, really. Small, black, with ties instead of a proper clasp.. but I can almost certainly sell it for double the $10 of fabric it cost me. That brings the total up to two cloaks finished. 8 more to go. |
| Thurs, June 5, 2003 (3:30pm) Still giggling about the article at DrunkenDwarves from last night. This morning I got email back from the guy who runs the site, too - he seems pretty decent. I kinda feel bad that he's been getting hate mail from LARPers who took the mockery too seriously - it' people like that who give gamers a bad name. Anyway... the 7th Sea game last night kinda didn't happen... what with some players being late, and Bregon and I comparing site-stats online, and then us stumbling across the LARP article. So we ended up RPing Tierel instead. Completely by accident! This 7th Sea thing was supposed to be to give me a break from Tierel, not to lead in to more RP. And yet, when Star gets her mind on something, she's harder to stop than me on an obsession binge. So we gamed. It was fun. On the geek-hood front, apparently I out-scored Wally on the Geek Test. Wally got 64.49704% geek ("Extreme Geek"). I got more than 73%. That seemed a little high, really. So, since Bregon was over, I took the test with him watching over my shoulder to see how I scored. I guess when I was first taking the test, I did take some liberties with it. I tended to accept points for technicalities... like checking the box for "Do you watch StarTrek regularly" and several other shows. The truth is, I don't watch them regularly at all anymore; We don't have cable, and our channel TV is horribly fuzzy. But back before we had kids, I watched them regularly, and when they're on at work I'll still sneak over to see which episode is on. And I sometimes watch the episodes I have on tape. But I think that counts, 'cuz I know all the episodes, and besides... it also asks "Do you watch Quantum Leap regularly?" If videos and past viewing history were not acceptable, who would get that point? The show's not on the air anymore! Then there's the fact that I cheated on one question ("Do you know who Jeanine Salla is?" - I pulled up a browser, did an online search, and found pages and pages of material. After some reading, I figured I could check the box off). And I outright lied on another question ("Do you know the value of Pi to 10 digits?" - well, No I don't. But I know it to 7 digits, and I used to know it to 25. So I checked the box, and then went back to check the box for "Have you lied to score better on this test?" I feel no sorrow or remorse for this action. But I guess, if I was being very strict with the questions, I probably would have scored mid 60's instead of low 70's.... Putting me on par with Wally. Help! I'm a Geek! I'm a Geek! I'm a Geek! Accomplishment of the Day: One cloak is now finished, and ready for sale at Quad War at the end of the month. I wonder if I'll be able to get my stock up past 10 cloaks. I'd like to. More, hopefully, but I'll try to keep the goal reasonable. |
| Thurs, June 5, 2003 (2:35am) Oh my goodness, there's MORE! Click here for PART TWO (I get to make a guest appearance in this one, too. Yay me! Yay pirates! Yay for horrid LARP-slamming Satire dripping with mocking goodness!) |
| Wed, June 4, 2003 (10:30pm) EMERGENCY WEBLOG UPDATE!!! Bregon and I were comparing web page stats and referrer logs, and I found: This Site. Go. All my LARP friends MUST see this. I split a seam laughing. Oooh, I'm glad I'm not the sort of person to take personal offense at this sort of thing. Gotta go find me a bus to jump in front of now. Teehee. |
| Wed, June 4, 2003 (9:40am) Oh - here's a link I wanted to post earlier, and forgot: Geek Test. I scored 73.9% geek. Personally, I think that's a little high... but I scored extra points on 'bonus material' and knew almost all the Trivia stuff. Oh, and geek movies, too. Whatever - I'll wait & see what The Walrus scores, and then I probably won't think I scored all that high. Bored today. Maybe I'll take the kids to the Muttart Conservatory... particularly if it decides to rain again. I've gotta get out o the house, but I don't wanna have to deal with raincoats and drenched kids. Not today, at least. Oh, I also added Angel Sorayama to my misc. links. She maintains a weblog, but the link is to her web page. The log is mysteriously filed under " DC Update: Still no luck finding anyone to cover my shifts. Grrr. |
| Tues, June 3, 2003 (11:40pm) I wanna go to D.C. Here's a snippet from an email sent to me by Damask: Avast, me hearties -- All I need to do in order to go is: get the weekend off, arrange childcare for bits of Friday and Monday, and somehow earn a spare $500 or $600 dollars in the next month (assuming airfare is that cheap... it was last time. But last time was before Sept 11.) On more amusing fronts, I was sent to get my hand X-ray'd last Sunday. Ya see, I came to work with some nasty bruising on my right hand, from where a 10 pound rock had fallen on it, while I was doing a wee bit of gardening, and the doctor thought it might have been broken. Wouldn't that have been amusing? Luckily for me (and for the doctor) it wasn't broken, so I was able to finish my shift and catch Blue Revolutionist for coffee that evening. Coffee was... interesting. Fascinating would probably be a better word. I can now proudly say that I know someone whose Dad has been ex-communicated by the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Apparently, when his Dad was quite a bit younger, he had a difference of opinion with the pastor of his Church. He would not agree that his Denomination was the only one true Church. He insisted that other denominations might be valid, too... like Lutherans, or Anglicans. So he was ex-communicated. Wow. If that was the prevailing attitude a generation ago, I can understand a little better why my Grandparents were so shocked when I married a Catholic. Hey - if other protestant denominations are questionable, then those Catholics must be the spawn of the devil himself. I wonder what would have happened if I'd married a Muslim? |
