Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of December 2003. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Tues, Dec 30, 2003 (3:25pm) Stayed up waaay too late last night playing Settlers of Catan with James, Davyd & Myrna, and Jodi & Damon. Damon is Catan freak and was very helpful giving us all strategy hints and pointing out the relative advantages & disadvantages of various moves and builds and trades. I'm sure that if he hadn't been doing so, he would have won the game. As it is, I ended up winning (Yay!) in a tight race with Damon and Davyd, and Myrna chasing at our heels. It was a lot of fun, and I'll happily play again (and again, and again)... even without the 'winning' part. I think I'm hooked. James and I will have to see if we can invite people (Cori/Adam/Shelley/other local Catan addicts) over for a game, sometime, just to bond with other junkies. |
| Sun, Dec 28, 2003 (12:35am) Work was pretty good this evening. I was kinda tired, but the clinic was remarkably quiet (Holidays will do that) and it wasn't a very nursing-intensive shift. No injections... no stitches... no crises. I like shifts like that. I mostly sat on my butt and did paperwork, and answered phones (there were a lot of phone calls). So, of my "6 shifts in the next 8 days" which I have to do before going on Maternity Leave, one's down, 5 left to go. I think I can make it. Just don't expect much else of me in the next week. Accomplishment of the Day: Learning how to make a Dodge Caravan flash fault codes. My 'Check Engine' light came on last night while driving back from the Christmas Party at Eric & Star's, so I dropped by my Dad's place after work today. He showed me how to make the fault codes blink on the dash, and then how to interpret the blinks as numeric codes. It's kinda like reading morse-code-for-cars. I don't have the diagnostics manual, though... my Dad looked up the codes to tell me what was wrong. Apparently, the oxygen intake generated a faulty reading. Dad wants to take a look at it, and probably do some repairs early in the New Year. (At least, I think that's the upshot of what he said.) |
| Sat, Dec 27, 2003 (12:15pm) Note to self: Do not - do not - DO NOT - go Boxing Day shopping in an electronics megastore, ever again. Bregon is correct when he likens the atmosphere to that of being in a pyramid in Egypt: "there were so many people there that all you could smell was carbon dioxide and the moisture from exhaled breath". I spent overall less time in IKEA (finding the bookshelves and chairs I wanted, picking them up in the self-serve area, waiting for a couple store employees to help me with the heavy stuff which my pregnant condition would not allow me to handle myself, waiting in line to pay for it all, and then finding more employees to help me load it into the van) than I did just standing in the checkout line at Best Buy. That aside, I've had an excellent Christmas. Highlights include: Seeing my sister who is in from Saskatchewan; Christmas Dinner at Star's; Getting Settlers of Cattan; Having Shades home for several days straight and taking turns with who gets to sleep in in the morning; and the completely unexpected and mind-bogglingly amusing present which Star sprung on Davyd and me: The "Babes of the Dungeon" Calendar... put together by Scritch, Wally, and Co., from an amazing photoshoot which happened before the DungeonQuest site was broken down. Oh my, oh my, oh my.... I wonder if they'll let me show the prototype to a few select people at The Wake? |
| Thurs, Dec 25, 2003 (12:50am) I sat down at my computer on Christmas Eve, after our houseful of guests had left. It's now Christmas Day, officially. I thought I'd take advantage of that opportunity to wish people Merry Christmas, or whatever seasonal greetings of a non-religious nature you might care to receive. I had a bit of time to think, today, about what Christmas is, and what it is not: It is waking up to a cute 3yr old who wants to have "just a little snuggle with Mommy in bed" like she does every morning, whether it's Christmas day or not. She has learned that the best place to be, in the whole world, is simply snuggled in bed next to someone you love, and who loves you. Christmas is not a list of presents which still need to be bought, and cleaning which needs to be done, before you can have company over in the evening for the traditional exchanging and un-wrapping of presents. It is not about crowded malls, and the press of grumpy looking people, and line-ups of impatient-looking customers at the till waiting for their turn in front of frazzled looking sales-people. It is about bumping into a pair of friends like Shani and Emmanuel at the mall, and having 15 minutes to sit down in the food court and do lunch/coffee with them, while the insanity flows past, unheeded. It is not about stupid sales staff at big department stores who stolidly refuse to even consider selling a piece of merchandise which has become separated from its matching set.. because ya never know, that matching piece may turn up some time after the Christmas rush and won't somebody be just desperate to have it then. Not that this happened to me, but it was irritating to see this sales-person talk down to my friends when it happened to them, and they were doing their best to be polite and reasonable, and she was just being a ... wait, it's Christmas. I'll be charitable, and say she was just being tired and uncreative. Yeah, that's it. Whatever. It was annoying. It is about spending time with friends and enjoying their presence and taking things as they come... even if that means a "quick" trip down to the mall takes 5 hours instead of just one. It is also about coming home to discover that your Significant Other has spent what would have been his free time to instead clean up the house and make it look Christmasy, and has even cleaned the bathrooms for you even though there was absolutely no expectation that he would do such a thing. That was a lovely present, Shades. It is not about rushing to try to get the kids cleaned & fed & out the door to catch a Christmas service at Church. Even if the religious meaning is the point behind the season, sometimes staying home and spending quality time with your family... enjoying the gifts of children's laughter and bonding in front of the fireplace... is a better way of experiencing God's love, than doing something just because you feel you ought to. It is not about who got what gift for who. Or how many. Or how much they cost. It is about giving. Kalen caught onto that about halfway through the evening, and she spent the next hour pulling presents out from under the tree and handing them randomly to people, shouting "Merry Christmas!" as she did so. The recipients read the gift tags and passed the presents along to their intended owners, but Kalen didn't care. When she ran out of presents under the tree, she started handing out things from her own pile of toys and gifts. When she ran out of those, she started picking up anything she could find and passed it out... out bows, present trimmings, wadded up bits of paper and tape... all with the same delighted shouts of "Merry Christmas" as she bestowed them upon people. It is also about having someone waiting for you in bed, so you can end the day the same way you began it... snuggled next to someone you love and who loves you. With that, I bid you good night... and may you enjoy the holiday despite the usual yuletide trappings which clutter it. |
| Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (1:30pm) I, too, have posted a list of "100 things", as seen on Pixie's blog, Anna's Blog, and elsewhere on the 'Net. I recommend you go read their versions first, because they are cooler than mine. Once you've done that (and if you still have the stomach for it) mine is here. |
| Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (11:35am) Raven: Why are you sitting in my computer chair, Kalen? Kalen: I'm reading weblogs, Mommy. (She demonstrates by moving the mouse around and clicking randomly, while staring at the screen). Raven: Fascinating. I was just thinking of checking my weblogs, Kale. Do you think you could let Mommy check the weblogs, sweetie? Kalen (furrowing her brow for a moment of thought): Um.... Okay. You may sit on my lap, Mommy. I will check them, and you may watch them with me. Just don't bug me. Kay? (sigh).... Children really do learn from their parents. Whether you want them to, or not. |
| Thurs, Dec 18, 2003 (10:45am) LOTR:ROTK was excellent. Must see it again. Thank you to the milling hordes (and of course the individuals who made up those hordes) who all came to see it with me. T'was nice ta see you all again, however briefly. Catch ya some more at BP's tonight. If all goes well, I'll even have Wake invitations printed by tonight. |
| Wed, Dec 17, 2003 (1:15pm) What not to put into your built-in-vacuum hose outlets:  Yeah. That explains why we couldn't find any of our instant wine-bottle-corks, eh? $53.50 later, our vacuum cleaner works again. Now, to get caught up on all the vacuuming we haven't been doing for the last month, due to a non-functional vacuum. Accomplishment of the Day: Putting up Photoframes in Kalen's room. Bleaching baby laundry. Getting Vacuum repaired. Running some laundry still left over from September Crown and the cabin. Not strangling any kids. Yet. |
| Tues, Dec 16, 2003 (10:45pm) Kay - I have many tickets for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King at City Center 9pm Wednesday. More on that in a minute. First, a public comment sent my way by Arthur, which I had to post... au hrthur has this Public comment:I'm really not sure if Arthur meant that to be a public comment or not, but since he was (apparently) too drunk to mark it as Private, it gets posted. (Sigh).. reminds me of the days when I used to MUSH while sleep deprived and sick and having just consumed green-death-flavored NyQuil. Gotta ask Scritch if he's still got the print-screen log of that kicking around somewhere. I couldn't find my copy the last time I looked. But enough of that. LOTR: we have plans to see it. Lots of us. If your name is not on the upcoming list and you want to catch it with us, then you'll probably have to pick up your own ticket. I was told they hadn't sold out yet, and weren't expecting to do so until Wednesday evening (though when Wednesday eve I've no clue). The list of people we have tix for includes: Shades, Coni, Jason, Arthur, Fox, Sanchez (who already has his ticket as of Mon), Atwood, Myrna, Starling, Scritch, Wally, Other_Mike, Gorra, Steph, Laurie/Boris, Else, Don, Dan. We have tentative plans to meet at City Center theater around 8pm. I have just been informed that that's when the theater is advising people to show up in order to line up for the show... so maybe we can try to have some people there even earlier (7ish? 7:30?) so we have half a hope of getting a big group of seats together in a decent part of the theater. Maybe I'll send Shades out early, with the tickets. Watch for him. Myself, I won't be showing up 'til a little later 'cuz I''ve got to wait for the sitter. Accomplishment of the Day: Sewing a tunic with Fox. |
| Sat, Dec 13, 2003 (9:55pm) Home alone. Well, not quite alone... the kids are here. But Connor is sleeping, and Kalen is ready to go to bed shortly - she's playing quietly with Lego right now. James, however, is off to a Christmas concert with his Dad and brothers. I'm meandering the web, drinking coffee, nibbling chocolate, and thinking that Christmas is being very good this year. Speaking of concerts, I went to The Nutcracker with Cam last Wednesday. That was very cool. I discovered two things during our evening out, tho: (1) I should spend more time with Cam. He's cool, and we really don't see enough of eachother. (2) I am terribly envious of anybody who actually has a waist. I think I'm about ready to be done with this whole pregnancy thing. Still got 2 months to go, tho... (sigh). Kalen, my sweet daughter and fruit of my own womb, has just invited me to come see the Lego creation she built. It appears that she has built a parapet around the roof of a quaint little white house... and decorated it with pikes, topped by the decapitated heads and torsos of little Lego men. Ah..... some days, it makes me so proud to be a parent. |
| Fri, Dec 12, 2003 (11:35am) So, I did manage to get the kids' car seats into my new van, yesterday. I thought to myself at the time, "This looks like a pretty easy job which should take a max of 10 minutes, but I've transferred carseats before and it always takes at least twice as long as it ought to. I'm gonna run into problems like needing a locking clip to fasten a continuous loop seatbelt, and having to lengthen the tether straps, so perhaps I should factor in another... oh... half an hour to deal with that (since 15 minutes ought to be more than enough) and then toss another ten minutes on top of the whole mess to account for the unexpected. Shouldn't take me more than an hour to accomplish this 10-minute task." My estimate was stunningly accurate. It took me 55 minutes from the time I entered the garage (car seats in hand) until they were locked securely in place and ready to have children strapped in. Among the fascinating challenges I encountered were:
But everything did eventually work out. I celebrated by loading up the kids and taking them Christmas shopping. We returned home much later in the evening, laden with loot. That was good. But the best part was that I got to drive my van - my van - which I've been waiting to do for over a week. It was extremely enjoyable. I like being slightly above the height of most cars... and getting in & out of a van while pregnant is easier than doing the same trick in a car. It handles nice, too. I like my van. |
| Thurs, Dec 11, 2003 (11:55am) I have a van! I have a van! I have a van! (See Raven do the Happy-Van-Dance!) Yay! No doubt pics shall accompany this soon, but I want to get the van out of the garage and into the sunlight before pointing my digicam at it, and before that, I have to install the car seats (which will take some doing) and I'd rather do that in the relative warmth of the garage... so it may be a while before photos appear. In the meantime, I wanted to relay something cute. Kalen likes to watch over my shoulder when I'm on the computer. I really don't know how much she gets out of the experience (although she does know for a fact what an Ace of spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts look like, and she knows that when Mommy wins a solitare game, the cards do a little dance) but she seems to enjoy it, overall. It does mean that have to endure an endless barrage of questions about what I'm doing, what do those words say, what's that a picture of, why are you clicking, etc., etc., etc., but it's a price I'm willing to pay in order to check my email and read my blogs. I usually answer her questions directly and honestly ("I'm deleting junk mail, Kalen." "Those words say 'under construction' and mean the page isn't done yet" "That's a yellow duck" "I'm clicking on a hypertext link so it will show me a new page, sweetie.") and she nods, and lets me get on with my web browsing. But I hadn't realized exactly how much she gets out of the responses I blithely toss her way, until recently...
(sigh)... You really have to watch it with toddlers. They are far more observant than most people give 'em credit for. Except, of course, when it comes to looking for missing socks, or seeing the huge mess which they're supposed to be cleaning up. Then they're just plain blind. |
Wed, Dec 10, 2003 (3:30pm)
RavenBlack posted his recipe for "Raven-fried Rice" on his weblog today. I happened upon it while I was trying to decide what to make for lunch, and thought to myself, "Hey, self... we have most of those ingredients. Why not try it?"Thus, we embarked upon a culinary adventure of the RavenBlack kind. It was made following the directions as written, except that I did in fact use half an onion. And where it calls for meat-substitute or meat-substitute-substitute, I ended up using simulated-meat-substitute-substitute, as well as an egg to provide the protien component. Oh - and I added some carrot at the 'Chop up and fry the onion' stage because I just happened to have that on hand. And among the random variety of spices used was some Nasi Goreng, which made for an interesting East-Indian flavor. The result of this experimentation was quite good, and can be seen at left . On a completely unrelated note, I like buying things online from ThingGeek. They send you an email confirmation of your purchase with the note, "Here are the items you just spent your hard-earned cash on:" Yeah. I like ThinkGeek. |
| Wed, Dec 10, 2003 (11:45am) Special Announcement: We are planning to catch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King at City Center on Wed, Dec 17, 9:00pm. If anyone would like to come with us, lemme know and I can try to pick up tickets for you before the week is out. I'm told it's not selling out too fast (unlike the 3-show marathons and the premiere festivities at Silver City and South Common) but I don't expect the tickets to linger. If you wanna buy your own tix and just show up & surprise us, that's cool with me too. At any rate, if you're reading this, then you're invited. And if you are reading this and also happen to be Arthur, then you are not only invited, but your attendance is mandatory. So there. Plbbbbt. On the vehicular front, my van is coming along well. Dad says he's got the 2-seater bench fitted with the correct brackets to lock it into the floor of the van (he brought the bench to my brother's place last night to get the welding done). The floor-brackets have been bolted correctly in place. There are restraining bolts installed so as to place car seats on the 2-seater bench. Dad's going to install 2 more restraining bolts behind the rear bench, too, so I could technically have four car seats in the van at once... a usefull arrangement seeing as two of my close friends each come with their own pair of kids. There's a couple other little things which needs to be done (Dad says the cup-holder needs to be re-attatched to the 2-seater bench, since he removed it during the welding) but my van might actually be ready by tonight. Tonight!! Woohoo! That means I could drive it to BP's on Thursday, and show it off!! |
| Mon, Dec 8, 2003 (6:25pm) Anna got her package! I'm happy. (She's happy, too. At least she said so repeatedly in her email, so I guess I'd better believe her, right? (grin)). I always get paranoid that overseas packages will end up lost in some strange place... like the bottom of the ocean, or something. But it reached her, and even a bit quicker than originally anticipated. Woohoo! And I'm also happy 'cuz Aleris sent me a comment on my quick-comment form about 'My Life with Master'. Not only do I have positive feedingback from someone else about the game, but I have proof that he reads my weblog from time to time. Cool! Ya know, I should really spend less time weblogging, and more answering email. I have yet to send Aleris or Anna a reply. Or another two dozen people who've emailed me in the last month and who deserve well-thought-out replies. But my problem is that I have so little time to sit and actually compose anything, that I tend to just blather on my weblog to the masses at large and pretend it's good enough for now. I mean to get back to the email later... but later is consumed by domestic tasks, and sporadic offspring-inspired crises. Maybe someday when I have more free time I'll be more responsible in my online communication habits. 'Til then, be aware that I read (and treasure!) the email which is sent to me, and my lack of response is not intended as any personal slight. |
| Sat, Dec 6, 2003 (1:55pm) My Life with Masster... Friday night gaming was interesting. Last week we ended our current D&D adventure, and Scritch offered to run the next game - not a D&D module, but a story of pathetic minons and evil masters, called, "My Life with Master". We did character creation and I ended up with a red-eyed albino jailer minion, whose job is to keep Master's unfortunate prisonners from escaping the catacombs. It look like it will be an interesting game. Tonight should also be fun: we're going to SCA's St. Nicholas Feast. This'll be Connor's 3rd St.Nick's feast (and he's not even two yet! His birthday is tomorrow) because he attended his first when he was less than 36 hours old. It'll be Kalen's second, but she remembers going to other SCA events (mostly wars) and is quite excited about it: "Mommy! I get to wear viking pants? And a viking tu-tu? Um.. Tunic? A viking tunic? And we will see Grandma and Grandpa wearing evil clothes! Um.. deevil clothes. Um.. mid evil... medevil clothes? And we will eat with fingers, like Connor. Let's go! Can we go now Mommy, pleeeeease?" |
| Fri, Dec 5, 2003 (11:10am) "No van today. Van tomorrow. Always van tomorrow." So, yeah. Um. Still no van. My Dad found a 2-seater bench at Midtown Auto Wreckers for a very reasonable price. It was even the same color gray as the interior of my van! When he went there to pay for it, though, they told him it would be more expensive than they'd originally quoted, because it was one of the customized benched. by 'custom', they meant it had the new style of built in child-restraint seat in it. Very Cool! And not just one, but two! Both seats of the two-seater bench can fold down into child-booster seats. This doesn't do me any particular good right now since I need actual car seats with the 5-point harness and not just a booster-style seat, but it will be extremely nice when the kids get older. No carting booster seats in and out of the van - just hit the release and fold down the seat to insert child. Remove child and flip the seat back up to make room for an adult passenger. Tres cool! And it turns out that with my Dad's NAIT staff discount, he only had to pay $107 for it (as opposed to the $100 which they'd originally quoted him. heh.) But, to complicate matters, my dad discovered that this 2-seater bench has a slightly different locking mechanism to connect it to the bolts in the floor of the van. In other words, it doesn't fit. He'll need to do some alterations to make it click in properly - most likely by taking the parts off one of my three-seater benches and bolting them to the new bench. And then he still has to fix the van so the floor bolts will accept a 2-seater properly. And then he has to check the placement of the benches and install the restraining bolts for the car-seats. And then we'll still need some seatbelts installed where the 3-seater doesn't have any. And then... So, basically, it'll be a while yet before I get my van. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.... and all that. But when I finally do get it, it should be extra-cool. |
| Thurs, Dec 4, 2003 (11:10am) (sigh) No van for me. Not today, at least. I dropped by my Dad's after work, and he'd done some work with the benches... enough to discover that he would need to get a 2-seater for the middle bench before he'd be able to determine the exact placement of the back bench, because that bench will be on sliders and able to move forward or back a bit depending on placement of things, and the place where the 2-seater bench will go is also a problem because the clips on the floor which hold a three-seater are not the same ones which hold a two seater - the two-seater's clips are hidden under the factory-installed carpet and would need to be cut out for access and even then they don't have the bar acrss them which is required to click the seat into place, and he'd need to get that done and then get inserts or something to cover the holes which the three-seater normally clips into, and on top of that we'll need more seat belts because the three-seater only has one belt built into the middle, and that just on't do for strapping in the carseats. Yeah. So, the upshot is that my Dad is going to drive my van to work today so he can do stuff with it this afternoon, like buy a two-seater bench which fits. Hopefully, when he's done with it, the remaining problems can be described in less of a run-on sentance. |
| Wed, Dec 3, 2003 (11:55am) Yesterday I got my new van insured, and registered. Woohoo! I've even got shiny new plates to put on it. It's officially and legally driveable! Now I'm just waiting for Dad to put in the anchors for tether straps (not restraining bolts - repeat to self, they are not called restraining bolts - they are tether strap anchors) so I have the ability to cart kids around, and I can make it my primary vehicle. Maybe that'll get done this evening, and I can pick up my van on the way home from work. Yeah.. work. I've been pulling a lot of extra shifts lately. Not just 'cuz I'm trying to pay for a new vehicle (which is part of it) but due to the fact that my pay while I'm on Maternity Leave is based on the hours I put in while I'm still working. Last time I tapered off my work hours near the end of my pregnancy and was rather annoyed to discover that I was expected to live for the next year on less than half of my normal pay rate. this time, I will sacrifice sanity and even my gaming schedule so that I can put in those hours and get reasonable paychecks from the unreasonable government. |
| Tues, Dec 2, 2003 (12:10am) Raven: What would you like for lunch, Kalen? Kalen: Salt! (sigh)... Genetics will tell, I guess. And if you don't believe me, read Shades' weblog entry for Sat, Nov 29 '03. |