just a little thing i do

Between entries, that is. Mostly it's due to having acquired too many interests requiring time devotions without having acquired any more time to devote. My baby blanket project for sekl, non_seqvitvr & co. has spawned a startling mania for crochet, which is great fun but not always as fast or cheap as I'd like. This eats into my pirate time, which when moved about tends to eat into my baking/cooking time, which eats into sleep. Prime example of this: Valentine's weekend. Not only was someone leaving the workplace, last day the 13th (which requires a cake), but I'd been requested to help bake goodies to attach to valentines people had bought from the Party Committee to send co-workers. On top of that, I was commissioned to bake a heart-shaped black forest-y cake with strawberries for someone else. I got 4 hours of sleep on the 12th-13th, and 2 on the 13th-14th, and the only reason I got that much was due to K helping out with bagging up the goodies. Silly me for wanting the food to be fresh. Next year I'm opting out.

Also feeling guilty about the lack of motion on my part with respect to all things Triathan. I was getting quite a bit done when I was entering data into my shiny new Palm during lunch hour. Then I realized I couldn't stop thinking about entering more, which meant I wasn't thinking about the Labor Code and the cost of surgeries and how much more money people were supposed to be getting. So I swapped it out for crochet, which is much easier to stop thinking about. Maybe I need to start working on TG material in the car to make up for it......no, bad idea, then I'll be thinking about it *all day.* Aaaghhh.

In other news, I managed to snip my left index finger pretty good with my garden shears over the weekend. It hasn't hurt much at all, even when I was washing it out, which is odd. Usually I don't do well with cuts. Huzzah for Nexcare waterproof, I guess.

Well, zehntaur has posted recently, and non_seqvitvr is posting like mad, so it looks like I better get my booty in gear.

Vitamin D is my friend. Due to morning happenings several days last week, I neglected my supplementation and paid the price with a nice crash into depression Sunday and Monday. You could argue that after the dayful of hypomania I had the previous Monday, I was due for a slide, but usually it hits sooner……like *before* my period. Whatever the cause, I am so not forgetting again. Having to hold back tears at the sound of one’s alarm in the morning is not something one should expect.

I like knitting. Knitting is fun. Ravenclaw scarf has about 4” done and it looks pretty damn good.

Saw Narnia, which was great. As if to confirm what the director said at Comic-Con about aiming to make the movie every child saw while reading the book, parts of it felt as if I were seeing them again. I did want to shout repeatedly at the kid (pfff, not a kid actually) playing Peter, “You’ve got Ron-face!” but I think I managed to confine it to under-breath mutters. Not so for the kid across the aisle, who was old enough to be very articulate but not quite old enough to follow the plot 100%, nor to understand what an indoor voice is. Still, less annoying than the cell-phone idiots behind us in History of Violence.

Never again drinking beer during a late-running D&D session.

I would give a great deal of money and/or cookies for something that would keep me from rebiting my lip every time I eat. This has been going on for nearly a week and it’s getting old.

Pinning my hair up keeps me from wasting time messing with it. Looks good too.

Work gives us the 23rd and 26th off. I’m also taking the 22nd and 27th. Probably be making cookies or something equally unhealthful.

Downloaded Avernum 4 and have been conspicuously absent from Y!PP forums this week. The game is the latest in the series that introduced me to RPGs during the summer just prior to UCI. The guy made three games in the series, then did stuff unrelated to it, then remade the original three. What I've seen and played of those has been a definite improvement, mainly to the depth of the story and the quality of the graphics. A4, on the other hand, is enough of a departure in engine and interface that it's jarring, and for this long-term groupie, it borders on unplayable. I'll probably still buy it, especially if the plot turns out to be what I think it may. It has the potential to be a retread of 2 and 3 together, but for now I'm trusting the designer. We shall see.

Somewhere in the middle of slogging through last week in a brain-dead state, we concluded that Comic-Con had left us effectively without a weekend. We kept intending to get to bed early, but just about every night there was something to do that we hadn't gotten to do over the previous weekend, which was hell on the energy reserves. I'd already reserved the weekend for a possible practice blockade (fewer and smaller ships, and a chance for people who've never used Teamspeak to try it without jeopardizing any important island ownership), so we had nothing planned. Except the major project of Getting Some Sleep.

So Friday night, I pillaged and Chuzzled my little heart out, and played AstroPop a bit which was hell on my right forearm (cordless mouse is ergonomically evil). Saturday I got up early enough to put the blueberries I got at TJ's into pancakes, the recipe for which made so many that we had enough for another meal. Then, rather than a practice, there was a real blockade, which turned into a "$1000 gets you a chance at an injury" free-for-all when one of the competitors pulled out of the contest after one round. (It's best of 5 rounds, 50 minutes of puzzling per round with 10 minute breaks between, and an hour break between rounds 3 and 4 if it goes to 4. Sinking blockades give you a chance at a hook, eyepatch, or peg leg if you go down with a ship. This is much sought-after by some, and studiously avoided by others--such as yours truly.) I came thiiiiis close to sinking once but we managed to stay afloat.

We braved the Spectrum on a weekend to get lunch, which we ended up getting at Javier's. Their super-special stuff is on the pricey side, but the simple stuff and combo plates are pretty competitively priced, and yummy. And the decor is fascinating. The place has only been there since late last year, but it's been built to look older. They pitted the concrete and fake-thatched the roof, and the lighting is all candles and lamps (no tracks or ceiling-bubbles). And the fountains.....there are fountains all over, all different. At the entrance there's one made of multicolored glass bottles that I'm not sure how the flow works but it's mesmerizing. Another takes up a whole wall and a third consists of a row of big long heavy chains hanging from the ceiling and dripping into a trough. That one's right by the bathrooms and would probably make me want to rip it apart if I were dancing in a long line outside the door. But hey, the bathrooms are ergonomic, which was impressive. I like having the purse hook right where your hand ends up when turning around from closing the door. (Yes, I'm weird.)

We found out the Spectrum theaters only have matinees until 2 on weekends, right after buying tickets. The guy was surprisingly OK with canceling the purchase. And, after a night of laundry and computer stuff (pillaging and website--guess who did which) and another blueberry pancake breakfast, we went out and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on a real matinee at the Block. It was just weird enough to be real honest-to-goodness Dahl without being freaky Burton. I loved the playing up of the send-ups of nasty people by also sending up musical styles with the Oompa-Loompa songs (nothing less from the wonderful Mr. Elfman) and especially liked the update of Mike Teavee for the modern age.

Linner at Johnny Rockets.......chorus line of dancing waiters to "Respect," with several teenage customers joining in. They got extra tip. Not so for the bored biatch at the new gelato place, who didn't even bother to look at me from under her streaky hair as she punched register keys with her odd streaky manicure. Gelato was good, though. And then the longest trip to Bath & Body Works I've ever had, with huge discussions with the staff (including pumpkin_queen :) and poor kelson languishing in the Virgin Megastore avoiding a sneezing fit while I tried to find stuff that wouldn't bring the sneezy goodness home.

Pillaged to excess, then got *some* sleep.

V. good weekend.