Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of September 2003. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Tues, Sept 30, 2003 (9:40pm) Mmmm... we had good gaming last night, for 7th Sea. It went 'til 2:30 am, but it was worth it. Epic pirate battles, ship boarding, witty reparte, dire threats, dramatic near-deaths, heroic feats of stupidity and bravery... All that stuff which makes 7th Sea such an adrenaline rush. I'm also very proud that we got Kalen to have a sleep-over with her friend Gareth. The two of them are both rather boisterous, and I wasn't sure if they'd ever get around to sleeping. But unless they learn to share the same bedroom, I won't be able to enjoy 7th Sea gaming once our next baby comes. I'll be stuck at home with the itty-bitty squalling thing while the game is at Jeff's house where he's watching his kids. Now that I know its possible to have gaming over here and somehow get both sets of kids to sleep, I'm less worried about being deprived of my gaming fix. I _need_ my gaming when its stressful, and newborns are very stress-inducing critters. Accomplishment of the Day: Actually managed to get proof of my AARN registration to work! This was despite printer issues, losing the confirmation file from my online registration, needing to get an email version, problems with file formats and inability to Save as .txt, cut&paste issues, and having to email it to Shades at his work so he could fax it to mywork. |
| Sun, Sept 28, 2003 (11:55pm) It was Kalen's birthday today. She's three now, and can even tell you so if you ask her how old she is. And then she holds up a random number of fingers, from 6 to 10 (sigh). Since I was working today we didn't do a big party. Instead, I dropped her off at Grandmas on my way to work, so she could have waffles for breakfast and spend the morning with Grandma (including going to Church) and then Grandma took her to the Museum in the afternoon. She loved the displays. She is still quoting to me bits of the audio track accompanying certain displays, like the dioramas, or the rocks, or the dinosaurs. For her evening treat (once she was home again) we made a cake. Kalen got to pick which kind and what sort of icing. Just as a note here: the cake wasn't the treat. The making of the cake was her special birthday treat. She loves tossing all the ingredients together herself and doing as much of the stirring and mixing and pouring and licking and taste-testing as I will allow. I do not so much enjoy cleaning up the resulting mess. However, it was her treat, so we did it her way. The cake has a couple egg-shell fragments in it and I don't advise that anyone eat it if they're sensitive about their food being touched by human hands but the result was well-baked, and actually quite tasty. Accomplishment of the Day: Submitted my AARN registration renewal - a whole 49 hours before the deadline. Yay me. |
| Fri, Sept 26, 2003 (11:30pm) Hm. Must be one of those things wich happens with age. Or maturity. Or another one of those horrible things that time inflicts on we-who-were-once-carefree-teens. I've just abandonned the D&D game in the basement so I could go to bed. Not because I wasn't having fun - I really enjoy Friday Night Gaming - but because my body knows I have to work in the morning. It sucks, really. If I was on evening shift tomorrow, I could say, "Yeah, I'm tired, but that won't keep me from staying up 'til 1 am playing D&D". If I didn't have to work and I knew Shades would get up with the kids, I'd happily stay awake 'til 4 am. But... somehow my body knows that I need to be up at 7:15am, and thus has decided to cause me undue fatigue at quarter past eleven. It's not even a matter of choice. If it was up to me, I'd happily forfeit tomorrow's wakefulness for tonight's enjoyment. But I just don't have the choice anymore... and haven't since I became a 30-something-year-old. My body is shutting down for the night (as it has the last few weekends of D&D when I've had to work the following morning) and I can't stop it. Not with caffeine, not with conversation, not with an enjoyable fight scene. Not even, alas, by playing on the internet. And so, my blog entry must come to an end. G'night. Zzzzzzzzzzzz....... |
| Thurs, Sept 25, 2003 (11:55pm) Short night at BP's... I got home before midnight! Today's been much better than yesterday. Thanks to Shades and Star and the awesome food at New Asian Village, I'm feeling much better. In fact, I was feeling sufficiently re-energized by the time I got home Wednesday evening, that I mopped the kitchen floor. Believe me - this was not a task lightly undertaken. It had been in need of mopping for over 2 weeks... since the spaghetti. And the green stuff. And the milk spills. Eww. Today, I continued my cleaning frenzy. Lets see... I: - Vacuumed the livingroom - Vacuumed Kalen and Connor's rooms - Hung the Jabberwocky picture in Kalen's room - Threw ingredients for stew into the slow-cooker - Removed all the Books from the livingroom bookshelves - Removed all the Videos (except kids tapes) from kids' reach - Spaced out the DVDs so they don't sit 2 deep on the bookshelves - Cleaned up the kids' toys - Brought 2 plants to my Mom's house so Connor would quit knocking them over - Picked up the Carpet Cleaner from my Mom's - Dragged the Carpet Cleaner over our livingroom carpet - Spot-cleaned (by hand) the many spots which weren't resolvable by the carpet cleaner. - Bought Shades a Chicken-Pot-Pie. That last needs some explanation, probably. Ya see, Shades came home from work at lunchtime to find me mid cleaning-frenzy. He (wisely) stated that he appreciated my efforts, and that he loved me, and all those things which pregnant women like to hear on a regular basis so they don't break down (too often). I made some comment about 'Yeah, this is a woman's job, right? Cooking and cleaning.' He came back with 'Yep. I like my women pregnant and barefoot, in the livingroom with a dirt floor.' ....I looked down past my pregnant belly to my bare feet... which were still covered in flecks of dirt from the earlier plant incident with Connor... and I glared at him. 'Anything else I can do for you, husband?' I asked. And Shades, in his best red-neck yokel voice, said, "Why heck Yeah, woman! Bake me a Chiiiiken Pot Pie!' and he kissed me and went back to work. So I picked one up for him at IGA. |
| Wed, Sept 24, 2003 (6:20pm) Warning: This is a hormonally induced post. Life sucks. I have been trapped in a house with sick toddlers for the last 4 days. I am sick. I am tired. I am pregnant. I am doing everything I can to hang onto the good bits of the days, and my grip is being worn away steadily by screaming toddlers, neck tension, undone housework, and a general feeling that I'm going to fall apart at the seams any moment. Just so you know what I've been up against lately, here's a quick list of the good and the bad. BAD - I am jealous of Anna. Her soul is worth more than mine, according to WWYS. Mine is only worth £21838. Hers is worth £28175. (And, personally, I'd really like to see what Cam's soul is worth, Anna.) GOOD - I'll only be pregnant for another 5 months, max. So, the world still sucks. But it won't suck forever. I'm not horribly depressed or suicidal. I'm just mildly depressed and hormonal. And if I break down and cry in my stupid pregnant state, at least it'll be around people that care, and won't think I'm a useless incompetent wuss. I hope. |
| Wed, Sept 24, 2003 (11:15am) My friend Heather's birthday today. Must remember to phone her. Anyway, I'm still smiling from yesteday evening. I got a 'parcel pick-up notice' in the mail, with a note saying there was $6.48 owing for delivery. Normally, I like parcels - I'm not fond of paying extra delivery charges, but if it's something I was waiting for, it's usually worth it - but this time I wasn't expecting anything, so I was a tad annoyed... in a curious sort of way. I paid the charge. I picked up the parcel. It was marked as being from Terese Nielsen's Hidden Kingdom. Gears started working in my mind... Terese Nielsen happens to be one of my favorite artists. I met her (briefly) at GenCon and asked her to do a small sketch for me. She was, however, really busy, so she asked me to come back the next day. I did, and she was still busy then. So she asked for my name and address, and said she'd try to mail me something after the Con. I gave her my addy... but knowing how Cons are, and how busy artists can be, I wasn't really holding out high hopes for anything. Yet, here we were, three months later, and I was holding a small poster tube from her company! Woohoo! I didn't even wait to get home before opening it. It contained - not a small sketch - but a signed print of the artwork she did for the cover of the Vodacce sourcebook, for 7th Sea. Tres cool! So, not only is Terese Nielsen one of my favorite artists, but I have proof that she's a cool person to boot. After all, it's not every artisit who would mail a $15.00 print to Canada for someone they only met briefly at a Con. (sigh) It's always nice to find out that someone you admire for their work also happens to be 'cool people'. BTW - here's a link to Terese Nielsen's Homepage for anyone who wants to look at her artwork. |
| Tues, Sept 23, 2003 (12:45pm) Japanese culture has been thoroughly infiltrated by North American culture over the last few decades. All you have to do to see it is look at Japanese ads - they've often got English words or icons or references. I find it amusing, however, to see that the reverse is also becoming true.  I discovered this fact when I got Kalen's antibiotics on the weekend. Click on the little sumo to the right to see what I mean.BTW - I also put up some pics of my fish. I realize most people won't care... but I've got a really nice one of my pretty Angelfish, couple images of my new cichlids, and one of that plume-tailed red wag which I was babbling about several entries back. That last pic isn't great, but at least you can see the pointed tail. |
| Mon, Sept 22, 2003 (3:55pm) Kalen has Bilateral Pneumonia. At least, that's what the Doctor said today. And Connor seems to have bronchitis. He, too, is on antibiotics now. I managed to get through the Doctor's appointment intact. I went to the pharmacy to drop off Connor's prescription for pick-up later.I did some grocery shopping so we could eat supper tonight. I offered Kalen a treat for being so good through this all (and to show her that Connor - who was being a royal beast - was not going to get a treat for being the pain in the butt which he was). Kalen asked if she could have "Creme Caramel, please" as a treat. Creme Caramel is a special dessert which we buy when we eat lunch at Nikos Taverna. But that would involve dragging the kids (including the recalcitrant Connor) into yet another public place. But then again, I was hungry too, and had minimal energy for cooking nutritious hot lunch at home. And if Kalen (whose appetite is normally poor, and gets worse when she's sick) was willing to eat Creme Caramel for lunch, I was willing to buy it for her. So we ate lunch in a restaurant. Kalen was good. Connor was... not. I didn't strangle him. I was such a good Mom, really. We got home. I set Kalen up with her nebulizer treatment. I put the Connor-fiend to bed. I got out the crock-pot and began filling it with ingredients which could turn into a delicious hot supper without being monitored constantly. When Kalen was done her medicine, I put her to bed. I made a few important phone calls. I finished putting supper together. I finally sat down in exhaustion a few minutes ago. See - I have managed to cope with 2 sick kids through the day, through shopping and cooking and doctors visits, despite being sick myself and being 4 1/2 months pregnant. I have not collapsed under the strain. Yet. I am competent. Hear me roar. ... I am tired. Hear me snore. |
| Sun, Sept 21, 2003 (9:25pm) Friday, I had a slight sore throat. Meh. Friday night I slept poorly, waking with an itchy throat, congestion, etc. Bah. Whatever. Saturday morning I had to get up early for work. Worked all day with a sore throat, and felt a little tired, but not bad. Saturday afternoon I didn't get my nap, 'cuz Shades was at the Train Show and I got to watch the kids. Tiring, but not unbearable. Sat evening, my sore throat exploded. I decided to take NyQuil so I had a hope of a good night's sleep, and could be up early for work. Saturday night, Kalen got sick. With a sore throat, and fever. Shades dealt with it, 'cuz I was out. Sunday morning, in the wee hours, Shade woke me from my sleepy stupor to say "Could you listen to Kalen? She sounds wheezy. Does she need meds?" ...I listened. I said "Yes. Ventolin and Pulmicort by nebulizer. She's sick." Shades was up half a dozen times in the night with her, apparently. Despite the meds, she was getting worse. By Sunday 7am, Kalen was getting another nebulizer treatment. Shades called off his plans for going to the train show. I went to work, leaving him with sick kid(s). Sunday 10:30, Shades showed up at the clinic where I work, with Kalen in tow. By Sunday noon, Kalen had been given nebulizer treatment again, sent for X-rays, and declared by the Dr. to have early stage pneumonia. She was given presciptions and sent home. Sunday early afternoon, I started running a fever. I was still at work. Sunday 3pm, I quit work early. I was feeling too shot to finish the last hour of my shift. Went home. Sunday evening, Connor is running sick with a nasty fever, Kalen's still feverish & needing meds every 4 hours, and I'm sick. Blah. I need to go to the Dr. again tomorrow morning with kids in tow (while still feeling sick myself, no doubt) and see how Kalen's lungs are progressing. And probably get Connor looked at too. I've cancelled gaming at my place for tomorrow night. I think I'll be too shot to host anything. Blah. Ick. Blah. |
| Sat, Sept 20, 2003 (9:55pm) Woohoo! I am told that the Greater Edmonton Train Show got decent coverage on both CFRN and Global news shows today, with the NALUG guys receiving a good bit of the attention on both (getting the lion's share of the CFRN review, even). Apparently, they were a major draw yet again this year. I'm glad for them. But I s'pose this means that I can expect to be a train-show widow again for another couple of weeks next September, eh? Can't complain, really. While Shades is off doing train-related stuff tonight, I'm comfortably ensconced in the livingroom with a set of Project Arms DVDs, and a hot cup of tea. A particularly hot cup of tea in fact. Gonna get back to that, now. |
| Fri, Sept 19, 2003 (10:20pm) Had my official prenatal physical exam today. The Dr. says everything seems to be going well. We got a chance to listen to the baby's heart beat, and it sounded as wonderful as these things ever do. (Ya know, I'd probably skip most of my prenatal visits if it wasn't for the chance to go into the office once a month and listen to the heart beat of the little parasite growing inside me.) I still think it's so cool that a person can have a real living thing growing inside them like that. Admittedly, it does squick me out from time to time when I feel the little critter move around in me. But I tell myself, "Just think of how those poor suckers stuck to the wall in the Aliens movie felt, feeling something alive and moving inside of them... and knowing it would soon come bursting out of their chest." After that, a human baby doesn't seem like anything to be particularly squeamish about. The doctor also said that its unlikely to be twins as she could only hear one heartbeat. However, we've got the Ultrasound scheduled for mid October to confirm that fact, and see how the baby is faring, crammed inside my little frame. Hopefully this one won't get as big as Connor did. After the Dr's appointment, I was sent down to the lab to get bloodwork done, and the lab tech had a hard time hitting the vein properly as it kept rolling. So it ends up that I've got bandaids on each arm. Ah, well... it's not so bad. I don't mind medical vampires too much. And I had the good fortune to bump into Cap'n Mike on the way out of the mall and we got to chat for 10 mins or so. That was cool. I miss seeing him, now that our social/gaming circles don't overlap anymore. |
| Fri, Sept 19, 2003 (10:40am) DungeonQuest Report: All goes well. 100 sheets of Coroplast have been ordered for delivery late Sept. An amazing FOUR people have already paid their Quest registration fees (tho character sheets are still coming from most.) We had an actors' meeting Thurs eve and the ball is rolling well with regards to plot, sub-plot development, work plans, etc. The meeting lasted from 8pm 'til 11pm and we had almost all the key actors there. I drove a few of them back to BP's, Met up with Boris, and began driving people home. That took until 1am (partly due to a navigational oversight on my part. Stupid construction on Capilano Bridge.) Train Show Report: I got home to find Shades packing up for the night. Most of the Lego he needs for the Train Show is packed... all that was left was the mini-ravine I'd promised to do. He needed it done before leaving for work in the morning, since he's going to the Train Show set-up directly from work. So I made the ravine last night. For 2 hours. Finished scant minutes before 3am. Went to bed. The Raven Report: Raven is tired. Bloody tired today. Won't get to have a nap, either, 'cuz I've got a Doctor's app't scheduled for 1pm (which is the kids usual nap time.) Grandma will get to watch them nap. I'll get to drive into Edmonton. Missed Wally at BP's last night. I hope he had fun at the Tacoy Ride CD release party or wherever he was for the evening. |
| Wed, Sept 17, 2003 (7:30pm) MwhahaHAHAhahaha! All must bow before my M4D SH0PP1|\|G SK1LLZ! Shades is prepping for the Greater Edmonton Train Show (as anyone reading his blog, or visitting our house in the last week, is aware). Part of the burden he shouldered this year was to put himself in charge of acquiring more table skirting, to go around the many, many tables used in the display. He looked around and found broadcloth at WalMart for $3.00/meter (a reasonable price, really, shy of waiting for a good sale to occur). Alas, WalMart didn't have the 36 meters of cloth which they would need for the project. Shades came home at lunch to ask me where I suggested he look for a higher volume of broadcloth, or what other material could be used as a substitute. We discussed it a bit, and it ended up with me volunteering to be in charge of finding cloth for table skirting. No martydom on my part, really - I can't pretend that fabric shopping is an ordeal for me. I have, in fact, been known to do it under no duress at all. And spend a small fortune at it, too. But this time, I went out looking for sale. I was clever, even: I looked for Hallowe'en sales. And yes, I was able to find white cotton broadcloth, in the quantities needed by the train show, at the low, low, price of $1.99 per meter. So I bought it. Lots of it. Yay me. F34R MY SK1LLZ! I did not, however, buy the other pretties I saw whilst on my Quest. I went through a Pier 1 Imports store on the way, you see, and... well, I browsed. This is a bad idea, generally, even when our budget is healthy. When we're tight, it's downright stupid. But I showed firm resolve, and bought nothing. Not even when I came across a mouth-wateringly gorgeous "Saigon Throw" in deep red and shiny black. It was the sort of luxurious oriental silken fabirc which brings to mind the spices of East India, the riches of the Orient, and the mysteries of Bagdhad. There were matching pillows and other patterns and styles in the same type of throw, but the red and black one was the target of my fondling and oggling until Kalen finally said, in her most authoritative toddler voice, "Mommy! Let's keep GOING! Kalen is all done being good!" I figured I wouldn't push my luck with all the breakables around us (Mmmm... Pier 1 Imports.... not a place for toddlers) and headed home. (sigh) |
| Tues, Sept 16, 2003 (9:45pm) I'm nesting. That happens to pregnant women, I'm told. It also happens to me just 'cuz I'm me, sometimes. I get the sudden (or not-so-sudden) urge to completely re-arrange something... like a cupboard, or a room, or a garage, or occasionally an entire house. Shades has learned to fear these moments in my life. Most husbands have an instinctive fear when they hear the words, "Honey, I want to redecorate. Come help me move this couch..." Shades, however, knows that I am not the sort to move a couch, and a few chairs around and be happy with it. No. I need to move the computer desks - perhaps the whole computer room - and all the booksheves (including all the books), the TV/VCR/DVD/Speakers, the lamps, and then the pictures on the wall before I feel like I'm getting somewhere. This can, and does, often take days and many man-hours of work. Often my man-hours, thank you, but the rest of the household has to live with the disarray in the meantime. Pregnancy only makes this worse for me. Luckily, I discovered something late during my pregnancy with Connor: If I'm nesting, I can redecorate the fishtank and be happy. The entire fishtank, mind you - not just moving a couple rocks... but uprooting plants, rearranging every single stone, removing scenery elements and replacing them with Athenian columns and the like, or even removing all the gravel and restarting with a more aesthetically pleasing color. And sometimes I buy more fish, too. Or more plants. Or rocks. But even if I do all that, it costs less than the price of a new chair. And the best part is that Shades doesn't have to move a single bit of furntiture... and nobody has to smack their shins in the dark on an ottoman which wasn't there last night. So, I was rearranging the 55 gallon fishtank today. I'm still not quite happy with it, but I figure I can always change it again tomorrow. We'll have to see how I'm feeling then. |
| Mon, Sept 15, 2003 (1:35pm) A stay at home day, today. Gah - I hate days like this. Got some stuff done, but nothing major... just Stuff. Ya know, the kind of stuff which, if you don't do it, people notice. But when you do, it looks like you've been sitting on your butt all day? Yeah - that kinda stuff. I've also noticed something else which irritates me. I managed to get a small scrape on my right wrist last week, while cleaning the fish tanks, and I think it's gonna leave a scar. It was a flippin' teeny scratch - barely more than a centimeter long, and it couldn't have been more than half a milimeter deep (it didn't even bleed... just leaked a little bit of ISF, like most surface scrapes do). But because I was cleaning the fish tanks at the time, and I'm allergic to fish (as well as their food) the scratch immediately flared up with a nasty allergy reaction, making a nearly two-inch welt. It was angry and red for the better part of a week and I kept wanting to scratch at it, or pick the scab, 'til I finally put a bandaid over it. I took the bandaid off yesterday, and it looks like it's healing... but with a puckered white line down the middle. A Scar! From an itty bitty scrape! Man, allergies suck. (Just as a side note: I don't actually mind scars.. and it's not a disfiguring one by any means of the imagination. I'm just peeved that I got it from a scrape. Scars should come from knife cuts or bullet wounds or life-threatening injuries. Not fish tanks.) 
Accomplishment of the Day: Scanned several pics of our Cabin, and from the September Crown event. You can probably find 'em here within an hour or two of this post. |
| Mon, Sept 15, 2003 (12:30am) The wedding was good yesterday (meaning Saturday, 'cuz today's still Sunday in my world) but the babysitter thing didn't work out as planned (GRR) so Shades and I did NOT get to go out together, without kids, to our first wedding-thing in 5 years. Instead, the sitter forgot that she'd meant to tell us three days ago that something came up and she wouldn't be able to watch our kids after all. And in the meantime, she'd made other plans, and had agreed to watch someone else's kid at her house, the same evening, instead of coming over to watch ours. But that aside, I had a pretty good time. Shades was sweet and stayed home with the kids so I could go to the reception. There was amazing food, funny stories, good dancing, lots of people I knew, and I think it was probably one of the top three weddings I've been to. And when I got home, I found Shades just finishing off the last chapter of Death Masks so it's not like his night was a total waste, either. |
| Sat, Sept 13, 2003 (12:20pm) My brother Derek (aka Hjalti) is getting married today. I've got the day off work, and am actually looking forward to the whole mess. Hey - I went through it once too... now I get to watch someone else suffer (grin). Still gotta have a shower, get dressed, get the kids dressed, wrap the present, pack up my cameras (and film - must remember film!), pack up the kids, and get to the ceremony on time. Should be workable, though. Then we're coming back home for lunch (yeah, we eat late lunch. Particularly when breakfast happens after 11am) and to put the kids down for naps. Myke will be coming over late aftenoon to watch the kids so Shades and I can both head off to the reception in the early evening. That should be cool... going to a wedding reception without kids in tow. Man, I haven't done that since... uh... since I got married, I think. No, wait - I also attended Myle & Jeff's wedding without kids. But that was nearly 5 years ago. Pity I'm pregnant, or I could dream up all sorts of drunken mischief to get up to at the wedding. |
| Thurs, Sept 11, 2003 (5:10pm) ... (minor editting at 7:25pm) Did you know that half of a tea bell is almost exactly the same diameter as a built-in vacuum's wall connection? I didn't before, but I do now. Our kids have regularly been told not to play with the vacuum connection. In particular, not to open the cover, or shove toys in the hole. for the most part, it doesn't bother me too much when they try to sneak a look down the hole anyways. Most toys won't fit (stuffed animals, rubber balls, turkey basters), and the ones which do (tiny Lego pieces, plastic rings, bits of paper) are ones which would probably have been sucked up by the vacuum anyways, if they were lying around. Besides, they can't turn the connection on accidentally and start the suction mechanism, because it requires a circuit to be completed first. Normally this circuit is only complete when the vacuum hose is inserted in the hole, and a thin metal band on that hose comes in contact with the required surfaces of the wall connection. Little fingers, stuffed dragons, and rubber balls just won't make the connection. Well, guess what? A metal tea ball will. I was alerted to this fact when, from a rather comfortable location in a bathroom, I heard our vacuum start up... and gear itself up into a furious scream. As soon as I was free to do so, I dashed to where the kids were playing, and found half a tea ball firmly wedged into the vacuum connection socket, bracketted by two terrified kids, who had never had this reaction when playing with the vacuum before. I pushed them aside and tried to pull the tea bell out, while the vacuum did its valiant best to suck it in. A great deal of suction is possible, when a built in vacuum tries to draw large volumes of air in through a mere dozen pin-prick sized holes. It was a fierce battle, waged with significant cursing, and no few dire threats to the children. Just a note: I do not, as a rule, curse around the children... or anywhere else for t hat matter. But one should not under-estimate the power to be gained from shouting phrases like: Who stuck the bloody BELL into the SUCKING vacuum cleaner you little HOLE-plugging CRETINS!Finally the tea bell came loose (breaking the electrical connection) and the vacuum sighed back into torpor. I glared at both the kids, who seemed horrified enough at the display of noise (both from the vacuum and from their loving mother) that I doubt they'll try the same stunt again in the near future. And I threw the tea bell into the garbage. I'll buy another one if we ever need it. It's cheaper than a new built-in vacuum. |
| Thurs, Sept 11, 2003 (1:25am) Another September 11th. And the world still isn't quite the same. Anyway, we had a DungeonQuest Organisers' meeting at Eric's this evening (meaning Wed eve) which went quite well. We've now all got long to-do lists... and I've got a probable supplier for my Coroplast dungeon walls. Went out for dinner with Wally afterwards. That was cool. I don't get to hang out with Wally much anymore, since he works out of town, and I work.. well... an awful lot (if ya count parenting as work. And if you don't, come here and I'll beat you with a stick.) Basically, a good, productive day and evening. Must remember to thank Shades for letting me go out when he's got an awful lot of stuff he needs to do himself, with the train show coming up. Maybe I'll reciprocate and let him get some work done tomorrow... stay home, myself, and watch the kids instead of going to BP's. Well, at least 'til the kids are ready for bed. I can hit BP's around 9pm and still expect to catch most of the crowd. |
| Tues, Sept 9, 2003 (4:45pm) I bought some new fish today. I'd been meaning to buy some more plain old platys or swordtails for my 33 gallon tank (probably red wags... meaning the fish is red but its fins are black... 'cuz the black & red is very striking in a fish tank) but I couldn't find what I was looking for at the store. I did, however, find some plume-tail platys in red and black. Never seen 'em with that kind of tail before, and since they're compatible with my current platys and swordtails, I bought some. I also picked up a few more neons, as my neon population has dropped off again in the last couple months. But then, neons do that. For my 55 gallon tank I've been wanting some bigger-ish fish. By bigger, I mean a fish which will grow to over 3 inches in length, rather than your usual guppy-sized and platy-sized fish which get lost in such a huge tank. I've already got an angelfish and a foot-long pleco, but the clown loaches I bought haven't grown much, and the rainbow fish all died when the snail population hit its plateau and began dying off, littering the tank with nitrate from rotting snail carcasses. So basically, the tank doesn't really look like anything lives in it. I did a bit of research, and decided to get some african chiclids. They like harder water (city water is pretty hard, and that's what I've got in my tanks) and a slightly salty tank (I keep it salty already for the angelfish), and many variants can grow quite large. The ones I bought should grow to 5 or 6 inches long (though I can't remember the name of the types I bought). They can get a bit territorial, but luckily I don't have any fish i nthe tank which should have a big problem with that (I think). The angelfish is big enough to boss anyone else around (and doesn't hide in corners and under rocks anyways, like chiclids do), and the loaches are nocturnal so they might not like the chiclids, but at least won't be competing for food as much as other fish might. The pleco... well, if he has issues... he can just deal. I'm not on very good terms with him, really. S'enough for now. Gonna answer some email, and think supper-thoughts. |
| Tues, Sept 9, 2003 (12:50am) Well. My day didn't quite turn out as planned, so I only got a couple of those email replies done. The rest of the day I spent visiting a friend in Millwoods (which I don't regret in the slightest) and deleting 1378 junk emails from my inbox (while filtering thru them for anything which was actually real mail, but hidden). I did catch a couple things, but I wasn't as thorough as I could have been. It seems the computer decided to re-download a whole bunch of stuff which I'd already taken off my email server before, but hadn't quite deleted yet. Grrr. Stupid Spam. |
Mon, Sept 8, 2003 (11:35am)
Okay - the pic to the right is blurry, but you can still see that the Con-Man got a haircut. All of it. He's too cute like this, btw - I have to run my fingers over his velvety stubble everytime I wander past him. Makes it hard to get any work done around the house.So, my goal for the day is to finish replying to the 3+ weeks worth of email in my in-box which I have deemed worthy of reply. I've been almost completely ignoring my email lately (well, reading it... but not replying to much) so I've got quite the backlog of things which I should send out. If you sent me important mail in that time period but haven't received a reply by today's end, feel free to hassle me. Sometimes real mail does get filed as junk by my email filter. Bad email filter. No iced tea. |
| Sun, Sept 7, 2003 (10:35pm) I got to see a nearly-severed tendon at work today. Fascinating, really. A man came in with a laceration on his wrist and had already managed to get the bleeding (mostly) stopped. When he showed me the wound, we knew that it was gonna need stitches. Then when he demonstrated his range of motion (a common way of testing whether any important tendons or muscles have been cut) I could see a thin white band gliding smoothly in the gap of the wound, and it had a nice cut out of it - not all the way thru, but definitely there. The guy was really quite lucky. We still had to send him to the hospital to plastics since we aren't equipped to do tendon repair at the clinic. Tonight, I'm enjoying some quiet time at home, listening to the Thunderstorm outside, and trying to decide if I want to spend the evening watching more Lodoss War, or playing Sims. Accomplishment of the Day: Uncle Hjalti came over today with his clippers, and we gave Connor his first haircut. No more cute little curls - he's got a shaved head now, like Uncle Hjalti and Uncle Damon. (But maybe when it grows back, I'll keep a few of the curls.) |
| Sat, Sept 6, 2003 (10:25pm) Played D&D late last night, and was in a very nostalgic mood most of today (despite having a hectic day at the clinic, with hour-long line-ups, people needing EKG's done, asthmatic patients, toilet paper crises in the patient washroom, and having to call the ambulance for one lady). So when I got home and found that Shades was entertaining the kids with a Lodoss War video, it felt very.. right. I let Shades take off for his game, got changed out of my work clothes, cleaned up, made supper, fed the kids, cleaned up again, and spent the rest of the evening watching Lodoss War with Kalen and Connor. In Japanese, with subtitles. After all, the kids don't understand it in English anyway, so watching it in Japanese isn't too much more challenging for them. And I happen to like it that way. |
| Fri, Sept 5, 2003 (3:15am) So. My daughter flooded the bathroom last night. It wasn't the toilet, which is most people's first suspicion. No, it was much wetter than that. She's been potty-trained recently, ya see, and is now learning about the fine art of hand washing. After you're all done on the potty, you close the toilet lid, climb up onto the toilet, reach over the sink, turn on the tap, put your hands under the running water, rub them together for a while, turn off the tap, get down from the toilet, and dry your hands on the towel. That's a lot for a toddler to learn. Kale's actually pretty good at it, for a 2 1/2 yr old. So while I was enjoying some quality time with my computer, and she declared to the world that she was going to have a pee now, I let her go. She's done it many times unaccompanied, and usually doesn't make much of a mess. Lately, tho, she's been insisting on closing the bathroom door when she does her business. Less a matter of decency, I think, than that Connor will wander in if the bathroom door is open and he'll poke her while she's sitting on the potty. A girl's gotta protect herself from such intrusions. So the slamming of the bathroom door really didn't give me much cause for alarm. I typed merrily away. A couple minutes later I heard the toilet flush and the tap turn on. I kept typing. I heard a bit of splashing (par for the course) and I kept typing. I heard nothing for a while, and I kept typing. But Kalen still hadn't come out of the bathroom. "Kalen?" I called over my shoulder "What are you doing in there?" "Having a poop!"She announced, emphatically. Okay, I reasoned. That's a good excuse to be in the bathroom. After all, just 'cuz she had a pee minutes ago doesn't mean she's done now. Little kids aren't all that co-ordinated in these matters. A little while later, I called again. "Are you done yet Kalen? What's taking you so long in there?" "Is washing hands again!" Came her reply. I kept typing, knowing she should be done soon. Besides, I'd almost finished what I was working on. I'd only be a moment or two longer myself. A moment or two passed. Then another. Maybe another one again - these things always take longer than you expect - and as I saved my file, I called once again. "Kalen? What is taking so long? What are you doing in there?" "Dancing!" Came the reply. And a moment later, "Dancing and splashing!" What?? I got up and crossed the distance to the bathroom post-haste, almost bowling Connor over in the process. I flung the door open, already registering in my subconscious the sound of running water coming from the small room. There was water everywhere. The tap was on, full force. The sink was overflowing. Water pooled over the entire counter surface, and cascaded down to the floor. The floor itself was at least a centimeter deep in water. My stocking feet squelched as I stood there in shock. And in the middle of it all, dancing in the drips as they poured over the edge of the countertop, was my little darling. Stark naked. "Kalen..."I managed to say, still somewhat in shock, "Why are you naked?" She pointed to the bathtub, where I could see a small pile of clothes thrown in a heap. "Cuz I have no clothes on!" She smiled. She added, as something of an afterthought, "Clothes are WET!" Yes, the little heap in the bathtub did seem to be somehwat soggy. I stepped forward for a better look at the carnage, the way people feel compelled to edge closer to view a train wreck. My feet squelched in the sodden sponge which had at one point been our bathmat. The cold squishiness under my feet drew me out of my state of shock, and I did the sensible thing. I turned off the tap. "Kalen, sweetie..." I said, in my most reasonable voice. "Mommy is a little upset about this. In fact, Mommy is rather irate. Do you know what irate means, darling?" "Means Angry!!" Kalen happily supplied, splashing her little feet back and forth in the puddle. "This, Kalen, is what we call a 'flood'... and Mommy is not happy about it at all. I think you'd better get out of the bathroom, now, before Mommy does something she regrets." Kalen, being quite perceptive for a 2yr old, chose to leave the bathroom at this point, to wander around the house in her naked drippy splendor. I grabbed towels, and tried to do what damage control I could. The water was absolutely everywhere. It had poured over the toilet paper roll, rendering it a sodden mass. It had cascaded over the garbage can, filling it part-way, and drenching its contents. There was water in the drawers. There was water in the cupboard where the spare toilet paper is stored. There was water running down the walls. The only place there wasn't any water (luckily) was down the heating ducts.. and that was because the bath mat had acted like a giant sponge and soaked up all the water headed in that direction. I towelled dry as much as I could, threw wads and wads of toilet paper into a soupy garbage can, drained and changed the bathroom garbage, hauled the sopping bathmat over to the tub to begin draining, laid towles out everywhere to soak the mess up, and shook my head. Kalen came to see how I was doing. She was still naked. "Kale, sweetie?"I asked her kindly."Do you know what Daddy is going to ask as soon as he gets home?" And that should be any minute now, I thought, glancing at the clock. Kalen shook her head, no. "Daddy is going to ask, 'Kalen - why are you naked?' " "Why are you naked?" Kalen repeated dutifully. (She's very good at mimicking, you know.) "And what are you going to tell him, sweetie?"I asked, while she looked very confused. "How about you tell Daddy, 'There was a flood!' Can you do that?" "Was a FLOOD!"She repeated enthusiastically. "And do you know what Daddy will ask next?" She shook her head. "Daddy will say, 'Why was there a flood, Kalen?' " "Water?"Kalen ventured. "Well, yes. There was a flood because of all the water. But how about you tell Daddy, 'Because I forgot to turn off the tap!' You can do that, right?" Kalen nodded and ran off to find something else to do. I wrung out towels and continued with my damage control project. And very shortly, James came home. Kalen ran to the top of the steps to greet him, still naked. James stood there for a moment. A naked girl on your steps is not, after all, something which you tend to overlook when you come home. And sure enough, he asked, "Kalen - why are you naked, my little girl?" Kalen got a big grin on her face. "Was a Flood?" she replied. "Was there a flood?" James asked. And then he follwed with the next logicel question to ask of a 2 yr old who is grinning with far too self-satisfied an expression on her face. "Why was there a flood, Kalen? What happened?" Kalen paused. She seemed uncertain how to proceed. So, I prompted her... "It starts with, 'I forgot' Kalen." "I forgot to turn off a tap!" she exclaimed, happy to have remembered her line. "Oh, I see."James looked at me with sympathy, as I displayed sopping wet towels and a forced grin. "It's under control, now." I assured him, making little plat-plat noises on the floor, in my wet socks. James nodded with that sage look of a man who sees his wife has things sufficiently under control, and that she has a crazed look in her eyes which suggests she will not be good company anytime soon, and he chose the wisest course of action... "Ah.. I'll be downstairs checking my email, then." and he disappeared into the basement. -------- Hm. It's a lot funnier after the fact, I think. I was really not impressed at the time. But I imagine this is the sort of story which will be worth saving to tell at Kalen's wedding, or some other socially opportune time. |
| Thurs, Sept 4, 2003 (5:40pm) BAH!. While I spent the last 15 minutes raving about the Dresden Files, my daughter flooded the bathroom. I feel for you, Anna. It's very annoying walking into a puddled bathroom. And even more annoying to have to clean up the mess. Arg. |
| Thurs, Sept 4, 2003 (5:05pm) Blathering about the Dresden Files Ya know, Corin introduced me to the Dresden Files back in...um... 2000, I think. At the time, it wasn't a series, really. It was just Storm Front and the promise of a sequel in the works. The introduction was also a little odd. It went something like, "Hey, Lara - my friend Jim just wrote this really incredible book. You have to read it. It's about vampires and private eyes and the Mob and, well, I really think you'd like it." But Corin knows my tastes pretty well, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It turned out to be nigh unto impossible to get my hands on the book. It wasn't available on the shelves - the author was too new, and the title wasn't a big release. So I had to order it. And then they lost my order. So I ordered it again, and then they didn't call me back about it for a couple months. So I tried to order it again, and then they told me they'd had the book in for 5 weeks but I didn't come to get it when they phoned me about it, so they just put it on the shelves and it sold. Well, it turns out that they had the wrong phone number for me. So they ordered it again and this time I managed to receive a copy of the sought after book. I read it. It was good. I loaned the book to Wally. He read it. He loved it. (He really likes flat-foot detective type stories, anyway.) Shades read it. He liked it, too. I think I remember him saying that the twisted sense of humor in the books really appealed to him. I loaned it to a couple other friends. They liked it too. Then something rather annoying happened. It went missing. Somewhere between one loan and another, the book got lost. So I went and ordered another one from the bookstore. They mentioned that the second in the series, Fool Moon, was out too, now. Did I want it? Of course I did! So I ordered a copy of that, too. Two copies, in fact - I figured I'd keep one and use the other one as a loaner copy. I also made sure they had the correct phone number on the order. The day they arrived, i dashed down to the store. I got my 3 books. And I saw they had more than just the three - they'd actually ordered some shelf copies of the series. Not many... a couple of each, I think, but it was cool to see that they'd actally have some available for bookstore browsers and not just people who special ordered. Fool Moon was excellent. One of the best in the series, in fact. It totally hooked me. My loaner copy also did the rounds with my friends and they loved the series. I ended up giving it to another Jim Butcher fan, too (Wally, I think, but I can't remember for sure.) When Grave Peril came out, I didn't have to special order it. The bookstore had it in stock. And it was one of my friends who pointed that fact out to me. So I bought it, read it, and enjoyed it. Summer Knight I borrowed off a friend who happened to buy it before I did. It was a necessity, actually - the bookstore sold out of the novel shortly after it hit the shelves, and there were none left when I went looking. I ended up buying it at Chapters a couple weeks later, plus a copy for another friend who hadn't been able to pick one up yet. Summer Knight is probably my least favorite of the series thus far, but it's still a great book. I got Death Masks early last week from one of the friends whom I'd managed to hook on the series. We hadn't been expecting it 'til later this year 'cuz Jim Butcher web page said it wasn't due out 'til late 2003, but when he saw it on the shelves he snatched up a copy. Our little community of Dresden fans eagerly consumed this book, too, and have spent the last week talking about favorite scenes, devious moments, and what kind of trouble poor Harry Dresden is gonna be getting into in the next few novels. It's great. So, if you happen to like books about modern day wizards, or the Harry Potter series, or supernatural detective stories, or just enjoy seeing a main character be put through the wringer in a dozen new and inventive ways every book, go check out the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. I'll even buy the first book for you, if you want. Ya know... first one's free. You'll be back for more after that. |
| Thurs, Sept 4, 2003 (1:45pm) Thank you very much to those individuals who sent me sympathies re: yesterday's blog entry. It was nice to see them, once I'd caught up a little on sleep. Today I'm feeling a lot better. I'm even in a particularly good mood, 'cuz the True Dungeon site has been updated (and yes! There are pics of me! YAY). And also 'cuz I'm nearly done the latest Jim Butcher novel, Death masks. The book is incredible - best of the series so far, IMHO. Gonna stop blogging now to read the last couple chapters, and then go to bed. (Don't know who Jim Butcher is, or why his Harry Dresden series deserves to be on the National Bestseller list? Email me or Comment me using the form to the right.) |
| Wed, Sept 3, 2003 (3:00pm) Spent most of Tuesday recovering from the long weekend, and doing laundry. Lots of laundry. In fact, lots and lots of laundry. Oh, and trying to think relaxing thoughts, 'cuz my shoulders were all tight and my neck was stiff, and my body was in that state which promises a migraine in the near future if I don't do something about it. So I tried to see if my Mom could watch the kids or something while I went to the massage therapist, but it didn't work out. She thought maybe we could swing it Wed or Thurs, but we'd have to see. And besides, both of us had plenty of other things to do. Well, it became a moot point Tuesday evening. Somewhere around 6pm, I started getting auras. Normally at this point I could say, "Shit. There's a migraine coming on. I'd better take my medication." However, while I'm pregnant, I can't take my migraine medication. So instead I said, "Shit." and "Shit shit shit." I begged a neckrub/backrun from Shades, and I did relaxation and stretching excercises, but that was only putting off the inevitable. By the time Bregon dropped by at 1 am to return my car, I was definitely running a migraine... bad enough that I couldn't drive him back to his place as planned. So I called him a cab, and he was kind enough to give me a neck rub 'til the taxi arrived. His neck rub, btw, left bruises. Not 'cuz he was cruel, but because that's how hard he had to massage for the muscles to notice it through the pain of the migraine. I went to bed a bit after 1 am, hoping to sleep thru the worst of the headache. By 4 am, I was awake and crying with the pain. (As a side note here: I have a high pain tolerance. As in, I've suffered thru wisdom-tooth removal 4 times under local anesthetic and just took Ibuprofen for a couple days to get over the pain. I've birthed 2 children with minimal painkillers. I've fractured my skull and took nothing stronger than Tylenol for it.) But migraines are different. They hurt.) I got up, threw up from the pain, and then hooked myself up to a TENS-style unit. TENS therapy uses electrical stimulation to tense & relax muscles, and to distract the nerves with different stimuli so you feel less pain. Then I laid awake in bed for the next hour plus in agony, desperately wishing that I could just take a spoon and scoop my eyeball out so I could release the pressure on my brain and the headache might go away. I think I even woke Shades up at one point and asked him to get me a spoon. He declined, sane individual that he is. The TENS helped, as the headache came back down to bearable proportions by 5 am. 'Bearable' meaning that any sound louder than breathing made my head spin with the shock, and any light brighter than the luminescence of an alarm clock peirced my eyes like a knife, and moving my arm or head or neck made me nauseated enough to choke... but if I didn't move and laid very still with my eyes closed and a pillow over my ears, then I could relax enough to fall into an exhausted sleep. Which I did. I slept like that from 5am-ish to nearly 6:30, when Kalen decided to join Mommy and Daddy in bed. People with migraines should not share a bed with a rambunctious toddler. She bashed into my sore arm, and screamed when Daddy tried to pull her away from me, and I had to dash to the bathroom again to deal with the result of this assault on my senses. Alas, the bathroom was now lit by ambient morning light, and that was also very, very bad. My body responded by trying to turn inside out, as if the internal organs - from my intestines to my brain - all decided that they'd had enough of this treatment and were going to find someplace dark and quiet and pain-free to live... like the sewer system. Bleh. (My apologies to those readers who have never had migraines and might not feel like reading this gruesome play-by-play. But those of you who've suffered migraines at any point in your life, I'm sure you understand completely what I mean.) I did get back to sleep after 6:30, and stayed that way until after Shades left for work around 8 am. When I woke, the worst of the headache was over. I'm still feeling very light-sensitive today, and extremely intolerant of screaming toddlers (screaming at Mommy on a post-migraine day results in an instant sentance of banishment to the bedroom. No warnings. No protests tolerated. You may come out when you are quiet again.) But beyond that, my day has been pretty good. Now I'm going to see if I can catch some of the sleep I missed last night. |
| Mon, Sept 1, 2003 (11:55pm) (Not posted 'til Tues a.m., 'cuz Connor disconnected my DSL line last night. Tsk.) Back home. Haven't even begun to look thru the 597 new emails in my inbox (500 of them are junk, at least). September Crown went well. We enjoyed our cabin and the weather was great and the kids behaved (mostly) and my Mom's food was delicious and I saw old friends and people commented (regularly!) on how great Shades' doors looked, and even though I didn't sell a single cloak (except for the one which was a comissioned work and 'pre-sold') I would do it all over again. Gotta remember to post pics sometime. Tired. Sleep now. |