Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of Nov 2005. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Mon, Nov 28, 2005 (8:55am) This week has been pretty busy, too. Merely recovering from last week's busy-ness wasn't enough for me, apparently. I had to add more to my plate. In fact, I managed to fit a company Christmas party, an 11-hour migraine, an SCA feast, and a Sunfall LARP, all into the last 3 days. I think the upcoming week may have to be more laid back, lest I end up sick and useless. I was going to link to photos from the LRPS event and SCA feast, but suddenly my directories and sub-directories are not providing their indices when asked, so I will post links when I'm done resetting whatever needs to be reset. Bloody blades! Now my server is refusing to acknowledge my email password. It was working fine yesterday and I didn't change anything! Aaaarg. I am not impressed with my domain host's move to a "new, more secure, server." It keeps securing me out of my domain. |
| Mon, Nov 21, 2005 (4:55pm). Uploaded a couple days later, due to technical difficulties. I'm back. Lots fun. V tired. Quick recap: Tues, 12:30-ish: leave for airport. 11:30pm, arrive at hotel in Anaheim. Hang out with gamers til late. Begin racking up some sleep deficeit. Wed: up early for breakfast. Wait for hall to open so we can build a dungeon. Kill time. Hang out, play Munchkin, read book. 3 pm hall opens: 20 people work like a pack of rabid ants to build a sprawling domain of tunnels, and caverns out of coroplast and black curtains. Work, work, work. Ouch, coroplast cuts hurt. Hall closes at midnight. Hang with gamers til 3am. Sleep deficeit increases. Thurs: up early to eat. More work on Dungeon. Work, work, work. Coroplast cuts still hurt. As does tape burn. Do not get too much gaffer tape stuck on arm. Baling twine also hurt fingers. Work, work, wo- Oh! Time to open the tavern! Quick everyone, look like we're ready! True Dungeon runs relatively smoothly. The tavern closes after 10pm. Yay: Free time! We decide to see if we can catch the Premiere of Harry Potter (12:01am showing) at a local theater. Get lost on the way there, as driver isn't too familiar with the highways. Around 1am, we are still lost. In Pasadena, I think. We don't get to see the movie. Turns out it was sold out before we would have gotten there, anyway. Finally get back to hotel around 2am. Hang with gamers til even later. Sleep deficeit earns interest. Friday I slept in, a little. Ate good breakfast. Visited the Con for 20 minutes and saw the exhibition hall in its entirety during that time. It wasn't Indy's GenCon by a long shot. Then got back to True Dungeon for its opening at noon. Worked the tavern. Had fun. At 9pm, I got off shift in order to go through the dungeon with a group of friends who bid on a "Super Run" on Ebay (proceeds going to Hurricane relief). It was a blast. Partied with gamers after the dungeon closed. Made fun of the Tonight Show crew which arrived to film some dungeon bits. Consumed alcohol. I may even have gotten drunk. I think so. Fell on floor. Needed help finding hotel room around 3am. Yep, sounds drunk. Sat morning... oooh. Ouch. Yep.. last night was drunk. Still had to get to work by noon. Worked the tavern til the last group went through at 8pm. Then began to strike set. Took down coroplast walls and packed boxes and undiid baling twine and ripped off gaff tape. Coroplast cuts still hurt. Continued til the last pallet was wrapped at 3am. Showered (ooh, I needed that). Packed. At 4am I was ready for the SuperShuttle to pick me up for the airport. 5am-7:30 am, kicked around a freezing cold airport trying not to fall asleep before I had to get on the plane. By 8am, we were en route home. I slept. In fact, I slept through the landing. I remember trying to equalize pressure in my ears, and the next thing I knew, we were taxi-ing (taxing?) to the terminal building in Phoenix, Arizona. So I grabbed my luggage, disembarked, and made a mad dash through the terminal building to catch my next plane which was supposed to be leaving for Edmonton in 18 minutes. Made it with time to spare. Lots of time, actually, as the plane was late. And over-booked. They had to get us a different plane. Then they discovered it was broken. Had to wait for someone to run to RadioShack(!) to get a new jack to fix the pilot's headset. Finally took off 3 hrs later than planned. At least I had time to get a Cinnabon for lunch. Slept much of the flight home. Shades came to get me at the airport, and I was home by 7pm. In bed before 11pm. Slept. Still v. tired. |
| Mon, Nov 14, 2005 (4:35pm) Photos. Kalen's Hallowe'en costume: Haku from Spirited Away And because she insisted on carrying binoculars outdoors for me to get a shot of her costume, I couldn't resist this. Aren't I a geek? But hey, if I'm a geek, at least I'm the sort of geek who looks good in a corset There's a few more corset pics in the hidden directory for those who know where that is. Later. Probably a week later, as I'm headed to California tomorrow. |
| Fri, Nov 11, 2005 (11:50am) Remembrance Day. Today, we remember the many people who lost their lives in war, so that we may have Freedom. Freedom to live without oppression of a conquering state. Freedom of religion. Freedom of security in our own homes. Freedom of expression. Freedom to live our lives as best as we can. So I made special cross-shaped pancakes this morning, so we could tell our kids today was special, and talk to them about the meaning of war, and the price of freedom. Apparently, we also have the Freedom to watch our son pour an entire 1 liter bottle of maple syrup over his pancakes. Thank goodness we don't live in a time of food rationing. |
| Thurs, Nov 10, 2005 (8:10pm) The High-Tech Road or the Low-Tech Road? I have a problem. I keep missing the bus. It's not my bus, of course - it's Connor's. He goes to school at 8:10am and comes home in the vicinity of 11:35. The morning bus is pretty easy to catch because I get the Con-man dressed (Coat on! Boots on!) in the front porch, and can watch for the bus coming, through the semi-frosted window in our front door. It comes predicatably within a minute or 2 of 8:10. The return trip is trickier. I'm busy watching Kalen (reminding her to pack her homework/snack into her backpack for school), keeping an eye on Jasen (who get very grumpy and self-injurious as noon approaches, because he is tired and hungry) and prepping lunch for all the kids... and the bus comes in a 5 minute window around 11:35. But I can't stand in the front porch looking out the window for 10 minutes during one of the most hectic times of the day. I've tried it (more than twice), and the result invariably includes Jasen with new bruises or bleeding, lunch thrown on the floor, and Kalen missing something she was supposed to take to school. Earlier in the year, it wasn't as difficult, because the sun shone across our front yard. That doesn't make sense, does it? Well, the bus is rather bright yellow, as most schoolbusses are. When it was in front of our house, the sun shone on it, and you could see bright yellow reflected in various angles of our semi-frosted window. I would just station Kalen at the top of the stairs (on this side of the baby gate) and tell her to alert me when she could see yellow out the front window. It worked great! (and kept her out of some trouble, too). But now that the sun isn't shining there at that hour, she can't see the bus, and I don't know it has arrived until the bus driver phones me (she has a cell) to say they've been waiting for 5 minutes and could I please come get my child. I've tried watching the front door myself, but even if I stretch out over the gate and crane my neck, I can't catch sight of yellow unless its very bright out. And if I cross the baby gate and descend to the front porch, mischief breaks out behind me every 10 seconds. Then I have to clean up the scattered loaf of bread/collect Kalen's pages of homework/wipe up Jasen's bloody lip, and while I'm doing so, the bus is bound to come and wonder why I'm not waiting attentively like a good parent. So, unless I want to hire a sitter to watch my kids for 15 minutes a day while I watch for the bus, I need to find some other solution. Well, yes - I could just duct tape Kale and Jase for a few minutes of every day, but it takes time to get the duct tape off after, and I'm already very pressed for time around noon. No, sending them to their rooms doesn't work either - Jasen will injure himself trying to get out, and kalen will make a mess in her designated holding facility. Putting Kalen o nthe other side of the baby gate to watch for the bus means she's out of my sight and has easy access to the basement, so that isn't any better. I've decided that I need a way to see the street in front of my house, without leaving the kitchen. So here's the options we've worked out: The High Tech Option - Surveillance camera. Just set it up to watch the street for me, and have it feed (live) to my computer. I can watch the computer, or set Kalen the job of watching it (she loves anything to do with the computer). But this is a touch expensive, and perhaps sorta overkill. The Low Tech Option - Mirrors. The angle is a bit odd, but I figured an elliptical mirror might work. Alas, after buying one and fiddling around with ladders and angles, we've determined that it doesn't work. At least, not easily. It would have to be placed on our front entry wall in a very awkward location, and even then I couldn't see it from the kitchen... but I could see it from the hall, or just over the gate. So it might save me some difficulties, but it's not ideal. And it requires special installation equipment, because I don't have a ladder that can stretch over the front stairs. Hrm.... I shall have to consider the matter further. If anyone who has seen our front porch can suggest any other options, or modifications to current options to make them more workable, let me know via QuickComment or email. - - - The Connor Report Hrm, I haven't been posting a lot of Connor-related stuff lately, have I? Possibly because he's been so cute that when he does something new and cool, I have to keep playing with him, and then he goes and does some other cool thing, and I forget to post because we're having so much fun. Connor has been very verbal lately. By which I mean that he's echoing tons of stuff (without needing to use the echo microphone), and actually using words to request things, frequently. He still needs a lot of prompts, like "Connor, why are you pulling my hand? Do you want me to come?" and Connor replies, "Wan Come!" He doesn't talk yet, not by a long shot, but he's surpassed Jasen's level of communication, and for a while I wasn't sure if that would happen. My current adventures with the ongoing saga of Connor are related to schooling. He's been going to REACH for that past couple years, and that's run through the Public School System. But when Connor is in Grade 1, he'll have to be in the Catholic School System, since James and I are Catholic. Since he's going into Kindergarten next year, that is the logical time to switch school systems (so he'll start Kindergarten in what will be his 'Home School'). But oh, my - the paperwork. The phone calls. The being-put-on-hold-ness of it all. The special services co-ordinators and the funding dollars and the needs assessments and the government guidelines. Oh, joy. But we've done this before. I shall gird my loins with with determination and let persistance be my shield. We will wade through yet another battlefield of bureaucracy, and emerge triumphant. |
| Thurs, Nov 3, 2005 (9:30am) October Apathy Haven't been posting much to the weblog, I know. But hey - Starlin's back to posting! So, by the way, is Blue Revolutionist (two posts last month!) I have been doing my usual Fall Fatigue. Normally it's worst mid-October when the dead leaves line the streets, and the wind blows allergenic dust particles everywhere, and the air turns chilly to freeze asthmatic lungs. But this year it's been dragging on. Where's my October snow??? Why has October blurred into November without so much as a flurry of fluffy white air-cleansing precipitation? I want to breathe comfortably. I want my energy back. Meh. In the meantime, I've been doing bits of housework, and lots of child-minding, and finding time for a little gaming inbetween. Connor is doing well. Kalen is shining in school. Jase is growing like a weed. My Sims are well, too. I enjoyed a very tasty birthday with friends at New Asian Village. We had good food, excellent conversation, and I got to know at least one person much better than I had before. Wish I had more time (and energy) to hang with cool people more often. Insert gratuitous kid pic here and insert pic of 4 cute babes, here. |
