Fuuuun!

I ended up catching the crud from my husband.  Gee, thanks, I didn’t need that one.

It’s not too bad, just more of an aggravation mixed with the impossibility of breathing.

Thankfully, a variety of fun stuff fluttered my way to take off the edge of feeling under the weather.

First:

TRIP!

We’re going to Scotland and Ireland this summer!!!

Mom and her husband are joining.  It should be loads of fun.  Somehow I was deemed the responsible one — sure guys, leave it all to the youngest one — and am in charge of planning everything.  Flights are all secured and most of the accommodations and sight seeing ideas and routes have been planned.  I’ll be booking them this week or next once I’ve settled the best locations in my  mind.  Guess that’s they put me in charge; I’m the obsessive one.

We chose Scotland/Ireland because it’s where Mom’s family has almost all of its genealogical roots — so we’re planning on doing some research like proper nerds — and hubs has some weird fear of traveling abroad.  He has only been to Niagara Falls and to a Navy base in the Bahamas (so that still counts as American soil, right?), so I don’t know how much I’d really count either of those as foreign travel, even though he did have to pass through customs in Canada and leave the Bahamas.  I figure Ireland and the UK aren’t too drastically different from what he’s used to day to day and he can find somebody that can understand him somewhere. 😛

Second:

Guests!

That I’m actually excited about!

That’s pretty rare.

My uncle emailed and asked when would be a good time to bring my Grandmother up to visit.  I suggested April or May, when the weather is nicer here.  The date isn’t set yet but I’m happy about the possibility.

Third:

PACKAGES!

Mail always makes me happy, especially when it’s fun things.

Like this!

Who still buys CDs?

Me.  Totally me, there.  This one is actually for L.  He didn’t know it was released last week.  Surprise!  😀   Now he can be totally up to date for when we see their show in a few months.

We have so many different devices and weirdnesses around here that it’s easier just to buy a CD and have a good, solid hard copy of the music and transfer it around as we see fit.  Plus, it’s the only media our car will play so it just makes life easier in the long run.

…notice there was an “S” on that packageS?!  That one was for me!

My yarn for the MKAL Grand Quest Blanket!

I tried to get the colors to turn out in the photo but gave up.  They’re “Dark Rose” and “Dark Teal”.  I started out wanting teal and ended up surprising myself with the rose; pretty sure I’ve made it clear by now I’m not a pinks person but I rather liked this one.  I may be kicking myself after working with it for a few months though. 😛

I also don’t normally work with acrylic yarn (considering this is for a blanket that needs 4,000 yards of yarn, I couldn’t afford to not use acrylic); it tends to itch me to the point I break out, but I was pleasantly surprised by this stuff when I was poking yarn at Joann’s last week.  Of course, they didn’t have enough in store, so I had to order it and pay shipping *grumble, grumble* — I will say I’m impressed that the yarn they sent is all from the same dye lot, so kudos for that.

So now I get to sit and twiddle my thumbs while I wait for the first bit of the pattern to be released on March 3!  This is the first time I’ve blindly started a mystery pattern — normally I’m a fuddy-duddy and wait to see what the final project looks like first.

Excited!!!

Lordi

I turned old and had to nap before heading out for a concert.  It was awesome.

Both the nap and the concert.

We saw Lordi.

They’re definitely not up everybody’s alley but L and I had a blast, even though he has been sick for a few days.

I honestly just went for the entertainment value; the singer is a costumer and the costumes were *amazing*.  I got the tickets on Black Friday so it was cheaper than going out to a movie.  Totally worth it.  I think I’ll actually end up being a real fan after seeing them live.

My photos at events are never really worth anything…maybe none of my photos are.  I take them so I can remember what on earth I do with my life but I don’t want to be one of -those- people who have their cameras raised the entire time trying to get a picture and don’t actually experience anything.  So I grab a picture at the beginning and sometimes at the end if the performers have a decent farewell.

Earlier this week I also drug L to see Back to the Future.  He’d never seen it before!  It was fantastic getting to see his reaction.  Of course, he loved it.  How could he not?  Afterward, Christoper Lloyd magically appeared for some Q&A and that was equally fantastic.  Again, horrible photo taken with my phone as they were sitting down (I think the other guy was Tim Krompier?  I have an awful memory when it comes to people if I wasn’t already familiar with them in some way.).  But!  This way I’ll always remember we went and did this enjoyable thing.

I also got a bit of sewing done today!

With my medicine stabilized, I was deemed trustworthy with sharp, stabby, and cutty things until I up my dosage again.  I started the tutorial for the next Skill Builder block set, a Drunkard’s Path.

I used to be terrified of sewing curves.

Today, I timed myself.  25 seconds to sew a block, including 3 pins and fumbling with my phone as a stopwatch.  Booyah!

I accidentally ranted about books and libraries…

After the weird time loss incident, I’ve decided to delay upping my migraine medicine dosage by a week.  My neurologist said that’s fine, of course.

L is going to be out of town on business next week and also championed the decision; he said he didn’t feel comfortable leaving me at home while I was insane and unable to care for myself.  😛  I think he would have taken every knife, rotary cutter, and the car keys with him to Boston if he had to…I really would’ve loved to see him explain that suitcase.

The delay was the best decision I’ve made in a while.

Yesterday I felt…normal.

Last night, I actually slept.  I didn’t just pass out, dead to the world at 8 p.m. and wake up 16 hours later still feeling exhausted.

I still slept for something like 10 hours but I read before I went to sleep and I haven’t done that in a few weeks; I haven’t been able to concentrate enough.

I actually read probably a bit too much.  I ended up 200 pages into The Dubious Hills by Pamela Dean.  Oopsie?  😀

I’m surprised I haven’t read this one before.  It ended up buried on a bottom shelf and I just kept over looking it until yesterday.  It was in a box of discarded books that I procured from my old library before moving so it has never fully been on my radar until now.  The librarians there were fantastic and would set aside discards and donations they knew I would enjoy.

That library has actually had quite the scandal lately.  The administration, trustees, and library board did quite a number of illegal and downright dirty things and are being investigated by the state now.  The librarians were, unfortunately, at the receiving end of much of their nastiness — cut hours, reduced benefits, firings for no reason other than they had the education to replace other employees involved in their nasty schemes.  There was a complete turn around of staff at many of the branches because of the underhanded nature of everything; none of the librarians I knew since childhood work there now.  It’s hard to imagine that a haven like a library would harbor such sinister people, isn’t it?

I enjoy the new library system I’m in; it allows borrowing over most of the state and is absolutely humongous, but it is flawed.  I suppose because of the inter-library borrowing that it allows, not as many books are purchased at each branch, so it’s hard to read an entire series. In most cases, only a few copies are purchased, then not loaned out to other branches until they’re no longer “New and Popular” (for example, the Daniel Abraham I finished not long ago was published in March of last year but is still listed in the system as New and Popular so they won’t lend it to another library and it’s the only library in the system that currently has the book).  I’m not driving a 2 hour round-trip just to check out the last book in a series, so I ended up asking for the book for Christmas since I knew I would want to reread it in the future.  I love libraries and think they’re an essential part of a community…but I really should support the authors I enjoy since they’re really the ones that generate the content. 🙂

Also, I cleaned today.  I really must be feeling better.  L is going to be SOOO happy.  I might even cook dinner tonight!   If he lets me near a knife and hot stove that is.

Questing away

I finished the first chapter of the MKAL RPG scarf!

I don’t want to tell the story in case anybody here ever wants to make one but those that have the pattern will know what kind of nonsense my cat Joule and I have been up to.

…it’s insane.

I’ve laughed entirely too much making it.

…or maybe I’ve just been laughing because I’m completely losing it.

I “lost” a portion of today.  Hours.  I don’t know what I did during them.

All I remember is kind of coming to, sitting in front of the freezer with it beeping at me, looking for a spoon.

Why I was looking for a spoon in the freezer, I’ll never know.  I’d been there for at least five minutes for the freezer alarm to be sounding off, though.  This migraine medicine is scary.

I had my first migraine while taking it today and had to take the treatment medication with it and I think that’s what caused the extra fun Twilight Zone memory loss.  I really don’t like it.

Weak, I am.

I finally got my grubby paws on my yarn after L had to rescue it from the hostage situation the USPS had it in.

I immediately threw everything else I was working on aside and began the MKAL Yarn Quest.  I’ve been loving every. single. second.

Joule is my trusty sidekick in real life, so of course she had to be my feline companion in Yarnia.  L heard the rattle of dice and became so jealous that he actually wanted to make his own…and grinned like a fool the whole time.

Naturally, his feline companion had to be his steadfast Tesla.

He’s still learning and I’m helping a good bit, but he’s making a good 1/5 of the scarf completely on his own and catching on really quickly.  Best of all, he cast it on completely by himself.

I couldn’t help buying the rest of the Yarn Quest Grand Quest.  I’ve already had so much fun with this one and generally enjoy her pattern style, so I know I’ll enjoy doing more RPG style knitting quests.

Plus, I had a bit of free money to blow (bonus cash back) so I could scoop up the patterns and yarn for at least the blanket portion.  I may have to pffft right on the whiteboard for this one.  Sometimes life is worth enjoying more than following arbitrary rules.

…and for the cats sake, since I mentioned two of our furbabies, I snapped a photo of the third and lesser mentioned one today as well.

His expression is literally “Oh shit, what is that white stuff?!”.  The photo also shows that I am, somewhat, human shaped and not a vampire since I have some form of a reflection.

Sagan isn’t less loved than the other two, he’s just not as much of a shadow to either of us, so doesn’t get photographed as much since he’s not always being tripped over.  He’s just as likely to be snuggled up with, though…and somehow always ends up in the bathtub with me.  I can’t got anywhere in the house without Joule and L is likewise with Tesla.

I actually thought Sagan was deaf for years, as he doesn’t answer to any call or meow.  Oddly enough, he does come running now…but only if I whistle the theme to Bonanza.  We don’t have TV and I’m not quite sure where he would’ve ever heard that song — I haven’t even heard it since I was little.  We’ve had him since he was about 4 weeks old (he was found abandoned in a box on the Appalachian Trail with his siblings when he was just like 2 weeks old and a hiker brought them down to a neighbor where I grew up).  Bonanza is the only song he responds to, so he must have picked it up while living with the neighbor…or maybe he’s just a little bit insane like the rest of us around here.

=^_^=

 

Rantings

Anybody else super-crazy-excited for the upcoming Philip Pullman novels?!  😀

I just picked up my ninth book for the year, which is slow for my normal reading pace.  I’m donating all but one of those nine.  I did enjoy the Fannie Flagg (Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man), Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Gene Wolfe (Strange Travelers), and Dean Koontz (Innocence) ones, but not enough to keep them for a re-read.  I’m keeping The Spider’s War, by Daniel Abraham.

Mom is trying to broaden the scope of what I read by passing off some of her old books on me.  It’s working, in a sense, but I still prefer science fiction and fantasy. 🙂

I wish I felt more comfortable giving book reviews but I feel that the material is so subjective that it’s difficult; same with other media.  I hate recommending something (even restaurants, really) and then having somebody try it based on my opinions only to be disappointed.  =/

I doubled my new medicine yesterday.  I am le-tired and blaming it for the discombobulated, ranty post.

…L also accidentally punched me in the nose/right eye last night while he was asleep and that’s left me a bit woozy. Poor guy felt like crap when he realized what had happened.

USPS is normally pretty reliable but we’ve had a new guy since Christmas and I’m not enthralled.  I’ve watched him whip around our corner only to have to back up and return in a few minutes.  We didn’t get any mail last week and when we it was finally delivered this week (in the snow, mind you) had a note scrawled on the mail that our box wasn’t plowed.  Sure, we had snow THIS week but last week we didn’t have any snow on the ground at all...  Grr.  L promised to go by the post office to see if they’re holding my yarn package hostage; the tracking number just says due to bad weather they can’t deliver it and will deliver it the next day.  It has said so since Monday and we’ve had several mail deliveries since….and we’ve dug out the road, driveway, and mailbox, so the new guy has no excuse to be lazy now.  I want my yarn!!!

While I’m complaining, I also really don’t like the new road maintenance supervisor that was elected — he’s either too new to the job or literally has zero clue about what to do.  I live on a curve and they’ve only been plowing one side of the road here, so we have to dig out our side of the road to get to our driveway.  They also haven’t filled any of the tire busting potholes in the city.

Doesn’t all that complaining make me sound super crotchety?   That’s what I get for hanging out with all the old people here; most of the people in our community retired around the time I was born.  When we moved in, our neighbors across the street were in their mid-90s and hung around for a few more years.  They were a lot of fun, especially the old lady; she was a hoot…even if she did terrify my dog to the point that the dog would pee on me every.single.time.she.pet.her.

One of our street-over neighbors is the cutest old guy ever.  Seriously, he’s adorable and giggles about everything.  He’s a retired engineer so keeps decluttering his house by giving things to my husband.  He destashed his wife’s possessions by giving them to me when she passed; she was a crafter.  Our home now is basically what their home was a few short years ago.  It’s fun….until he tried giving us sheets of asbestos for our lab.  No thanks, really, we’re good without those.  Then again, he’s worked on live electrical projects in a wet basement for decades surrounded by asbestos…and now has a lathe in his bedroom because his wife can no longer tell him no.  XD  Maybe his secret to longevity is doing everything you’re not supposed to do all at once.

In crafting news, I’m up to about row 45(ish) of the steampunk gears scarf.  It’s not perfect, but I’m still enjoying it.  I’m blaming my newly drug-addled brain for any oopsies.  It takes me a little less than 10 minutes to do a row at this point, so I’ll finish sometime in the next year at this rate. 😛

I’ve also finished another set of blocks and the write up for that skill-builder quilt, so I don’t have to do any more work until April if I choose.  I’m sure I will end up working on it more though. 🙂

Beeeeeef!

I’m horrible with Valentine’s Day stuff.

I didn’t get L a single thing.  My “gift” is I’m about to start dinner and plan to have it ready when he gets home.

He likes to eat and hates the “soooo, what do you want to eat?” debate that all couples seem to fall into.

He’s pretty decent at it though:  (Sorry, vegetarians and vegans!)

That’s 8 pounds of beef tenderloin and a cyclamen.  They may seem like weird choices, but they’re perfect for me.

I LOOOOVE beef.  Beef > Chocolates.  Any day, any time.

The only food I may like more than beef is a good old Country Ham…but considering we just cut up one of those two nights ago, I think we’re good to go on that front. 😀

I did tell him years ago I didn’t want cut flowers for anything other than apologies — it makes me sad to see something beautiful wilt and die…and they always remind me of funerals.

I also don’t want anything that sticks around longer than a week for anything but happy occasions.

The cyclamen is perfect.  I’ve wanted one for several years now and in that shade of purple.

Other than figuring out what to cook tonight, I worked a bit on the scarf for L today and managed to finish row 30.

 

Snow :)

Snow, snow, snow!  Hooray!

Almost immediately following that photo, I had to go outside and knock down icicles and start roof-raking.  Thankfully L agreed to do the “snow-blowing” (aka vacuuming the driveway because we have an electric one that’s pretty  much hilarious) this time because he’d driven around a few times and it was hard packed and icy because it was the type of snow that is good for snowball fights (as the deep-south boy soon found out).

We had two pretty generous “storms” over the weekend and I’ve been enjoying them too much, as has the big dog.  The little dog is less than pleased with snow that is deeper than she is tall.

This weekend alone we had more snow fall than all of last year.  Last year was a real bummer.

The new migraine meds have officially kicked my ass.  I’m not looking forward to doubling them on Wednesday.

I’m one of those annoying people that has always functioned on insomnia levels of sleep — about 3 to 6 hours a night.  My Mom and L both whine about that;  Mom for the first part of my life, L for the second.  😛

I’ve only slept more than 12 hours in my life twice before:  when I had mono and once after being awake and traveling for over 72 hours.  This is now a third time.  I somehow slept for 15 hours like I was in a coma.

L, who has always loved sleeping for inordinate periods of time, loved the change.  He was also intolerably happy for what little of the day remained because he claims that for the first time in our relationship, HE actually got to sleep as late as he wanted.   Ugh.

Other than being sleep all the time, the worst side effect (in my opinion) has hit.  Carbonated beverages taste horrible.  They’re weirdly flat and metallic.  Coca-cola has been my liquid life force for years.  I’ve actually had doctors advise to drink it because it’s basically a miracle drug for my gastroparesis.  Life could get entertaining.  =/

More of everything

L unexpectedly received photos in the mail!

He, of course, had to fuss that they came after “we” had finished the family tree.  I’d love to know what work he put into it other than asking (repeatedly, even though I put the names and lineages on the backs) “Who is that, again?” after it was all up.

I, on the other hand, was quite excited.   I scanned, cleaned up, and transferred them to the wooden plaques yesterday, then removed the papers and sealed them with modge-podge today.  I hope to hang them tonight as soon as they finish drying. I love old family photos!  I think it’s fun that we both now know what his great and great-great maternal grandparents look like.  Maybe one of these days we’ll get some paternal photos and can figure out where he gets his funny looks.  ;D

Other crafts have been progressing along at the typical snails pace that somebody with crafting ADHD has.  I wish I could focus on any one thing for longer than half an hour.  Ugh!

I finally finished row 10 of the knitted Steampunk scarf.  It has 120 stitches, is double-knit, and has a fair amount of color swaps, so I can’t really fall into a rhythm with it and bust it out.  I am enjoying it a lot, even if it’s going to take me forever. 🙂

I’ve also made progress with hand quilting the mandala.  It’s also hard to fall into a rhythm with, as the pattern just isn’t very continuous-line friendly.  I’ve figured out a decent way to keep going without  having to start and stop as much, but it’s still a bit choppy.  I still like how it’s turning out though….and still hope that green Crayola marker will wash out when I’m done!

I’m almost finished with another month’s worth of the Skill Builder tutorial — just one more row of strips to cut and add, then finishing the write up.  My calico was laying on my cutting mat and I just don’t have it in me to move her when she’s purring while asleep.  I’ll probably use this block set for next month, as I think a Log Cabin is a heck of a lot easier than a Maple Leaf.

L and I made some alcohol ink “art” a while back and I finally decided where to hang it.  I say “art” because really it was an excuse for me to set something on fire.  I like fire more than I should.

The top two are mine and the bottom two are his.

I also had the most amazing impulse buy.

That lamp is SO me.  It’s campy and kitschy in all the fun, right ways.   Those are L’s Batman vehicles, so I’m not alone in making this house as un-adult as we possibly can.  Our entry room hasn’t been refinished yet, aside from the floor, so it’s still mostly plain and boring.  A llama and Batmobiles help that a bit.

L knows I’m more than a bit eccentric — as is he — but I don’t think he realized until recently just how much I fixate on certain things.  I have, since I was really little, loved shiny things (fire falls into this category) and animals of all kinds (seriously, the only creatures I don’t like are mosquitoes and ticks).  Of course I love kittens and puppies (but not as much as kittens) and all the stereotypical megafauna used to stir up emotions and empty pockets to conservation societies…but I also have a really deep-seated obsession for a variety of other creatures, namely octopuses, llamas/alpacas, and sometimes armadillos.

One of my friends gave me the Lloyd & Lola pattern by Elizabeth Hartman to go with TeacupLion’s plushie pattern that I coveted until I snagged it on Black Friday.  They both made it onto my whiteboard before the cutoff date.  I am SO excited to start making both of those!  I did promise my friend I’d wait to do the quilt until she was ready to make hers so we could have our very own miniature quilt-along.  Still excited! 😀

Medical stuff

I had my follow-up appointment at the Headache Center yesterday.

I still really like the doctor, so that’s something…especially considering how I am about doctors.

The vitamins didn’t help as much as either of us would have liked and I’m still having 8 to 9 migraines a month on average according to my logs, so I’m going on an anticonvulsant for further prevention.

I’ve tried this particular one in the past and I didn’t have any major side effects then but can’t remember if it helped much.

The neurologist agrees that my anxiety attacks look prodromal to my migraines.  He wants me to go ahead and take some pain killers when I start to panic without cause and see if that helps with either.  It would be *amazing* to have both my migraines and anxiety dealt with!

I’m continuing with my vitamin regimen, as they don’t hurt anything, and started the Topiramate yesterday.

The doctor also wants me to keep an eye on my blood pressure.  I have a bad case of white-coat syndrome and absolutely freak out when I’m in a doctor office.  He wants me to track it for a while juuust in case there are issues; some blood pressure medicines help control migraines and he’s all about eliminating those. 🙂  My pressure was 119/80 this morning so I’m not too worried about anything yet.

For a fat chick, I’ve been pretty lucky about having normal cholesterol, normal blood pressure, and normal sugar levels.  It’s just everything else that’s wrong with me.  😛