Aiee!

Our marketing dude took some headshot photos of me in case I'm included in a list of "influential women in MMOs" in the next month or so. Hahaha! This would be all Nancy Berman's fault ;)

My hair looks terrible in every shot. :D Oh, well!

While I can't talk much about my job, I will say how I love it. Whenever I get a little email telling me that something I've written is good, it makes me happy. I hadn't realized how much I've missed getting feedback on my work.

Nearly done with first Blackrose sock. It's going to be difficult to take a good photo of it on me as the lace runs up the outside of the leg. I've tried to, but I am not a contortionist and so cannot bend that way.

Hope I get some sleep tonight. I don't want to take any tylenol pm as it's already after 11 and that stuff makes me really groggy.

The Land Before Time

I've never lived on the East Coast before. It's very peculiar to me to be up and at work while it's still 6AM on the West Coast. It also leads to situations where I need to do some business with places further to the west and they aren't even open when I call. So strange!

One interesting aspect of this coastal change is upon viewing some of my favorite TV channels. Dan and I watched a lot of HGTV together, which would often show a program at 6PM, then repeat it later that night at 9PM. If one were home for the first showing, the second airing of the same show was a little irritating. Here on the East Coast, that show's on once in prime time, then not until midnight. Additionally, the HD channel and the regular channel are in sync, instead of being offset by a few hours.

While I'll probably miss having access to the Canadian channel during the next Olympics, right now I'm reveling in two PBS stations, with regular broadcasts and their HD counterparts. Between these channels, I am able to catch a couple of my favorite shows (History Detectives and New Tricks) that I missed in Seattle. Yay!

Humidity and Me

Yarrrrrr! A trip to the Inner Harbor with Ray, Rane and Jack completely wiped out my energy on Saturday. Although I had an open house invitation for that night, when I stopped at home to shower and change, it was too late. The moment I got to my room, I lay on the inflatable bed and passed out.

I do not like humidity. I really hate perspiring so much. =\

Then again, this is my first weekend not in my own place. Today, in lieu of tubing down a river with some co-workers, especially in light of the early morning downpour and accompanying thunder, I stayed home with the cats. We lounged. We knit. We discovered the joys of internet TV (thank you, neighbor's wifi).

It's now late (well, late to me) and Mittens is curled up on my leg. He's been very cuddlesome, probably hoping that there is no more upheaval in his future. The last big event will be the arrival of my household goods, which should be in a couple of weeks at the latest. Fingers crossed, anyway.

I suppose I should be grateful that at least I have straight hair. The humidity may make me feel icky, but it doesn't cause my hair to do peculiar things.

Sleepless in...Baltimore

Now that I finally have electricity, I inflated the mattress I've been carting around in the trunk of my car since Seattle. It apparently has a slow leak in it as by morning, I could feel myself sinking into a depression...quite literally. Very sad!

And so, having been up since 2:30AM, I am going to sleep now. Re-inflated the bed, took a couple tylenol PM's to ensure zzz's and there you go.

I did mean to finish knitting my self-striping sock tonight. It's the end of a milestone at my new company and we are going bowling after work tomorrow...and all my other socks are with my household goods (which won't arrive for another 2 weeks). I cannot wear rental bowling shoes without socks! Aieee!

Also won't be able to bowl without a wrist brace. I'm going to stop by the athletic shop in the mall across the street tomorrow to see if they have something I can use.

Saturday will be awesome...Ray and Rane are coming up from the DC side of Baltimore and we're going to the Aquarium! Yay! I've already been to a knitting group here, now the Aquarium trip and with any luck, I shall also make it to Zeb's housewarming party Saturday night. That's a lot of socializing for someone (me!) who doesn't know anyone in the area.

And with any luck, Mr. Moorgard will bless the presentation I put together for our AGDC lecture such that I shall not be spending my Sunday evening fretting over it. We shall see!

Good Afternoon, Baltimore!

After the world's longest drive, I'm finally in Baltimore. Technically, Pikesville, but close enough.

The drive went fairly well, with only one kitty poo accident in his carrier along the way. Fortunately that was on the day I was heading to Dan's father's house, so I was able to wash the cat bed in the carrier with more than just a moist towelette!

This morning I looked at a cute little cottage that I'd had my eye on for over a week now. It's a stone house built in 1840 with only two rooms (not counting the bathroom). My Ikea computer hutch will dominate the living space, so I hope my TV will fit into it, making it a TV hutch instead. :) And there's not really going to be a graceful way to get my lovely tall dresser into the bedroom/basement. Well, maybe there's a way, but it will be a bit exciting.

Not as exciting, of course, as the very loud crash that marked the guys moving that dresser out of our house in Redmond. Dan and I had taken a moment to sit down when we heard the very loud sound of what turned out to be two of my dresser drawers falling out of the cabinet while the movers were carrying out. Grrr... both drawers are damaged on their front edges. Doubly grrr as this was entirely preventable had the movers taken precautions.

I shall not post a bitter review of their service until after all my things show up here on the East Coast, though. After all, I want all my things to arrive. They had better!

Then again, they won't all fit into this cottage. Sigh. No matter how much stuff I get rid of, I still have too much.

Settling In...for now

Though we still have some clean up to do at the house (our landlord is awesome), we are in the condo. Two adults, three cats and a dog.

They did not tear the place up yesterday while we were gone. Yay!

In this smaller venue, Scooter has become resigned to her frenemies, Mittens and Melody. They can now all be within a couple of feet of each other without hissing. I think the problem in the house was that we initially had all the pets segregated as Heather and Dan's two cats were still living there, and that compounded the stress level. Now, in a place all their own, the cats can duke it out (or not) without added discomfort.

I got up this morning a little before 5, to the pinkish orange sunrise and the sound of birds chattering in the trees below us. They are very loud birds. We're close enough to the water that seagulls also fly by. It would be cooler if it weren't so daggone early in the morning.

Oh, and it seems to be trash day. They are already picking things up; I can hear the back-up beeping, the slamming of bin covers and the roar of engines up and down the streets. It's 5:45AM.

Tracy Zaventure

When Phil was a tyke, one of his favorite games was Kirby's Adventure...aka Kirby Zaventure. That's what my life is right now! A Zaventure!

As some of you know by now, I gave notice last week, will be moving to Baltimore to work for a different online game company and stuff. Movers came today to pick up my worldly goods and haul them away to store until I find a place to actually live out there.

On Sunday, I bought a car. It's so new, I put on all but the first ten miles :) In all my life, I have never bought a brand-new car. Old Paint was just not going to be up to the challenges ahead of me, so off he went to the dealership recycling plant. My new car is so pretty; I have named her Jane Grey, because she is a lovey dark grey with grey interiors.

We will take pictures of her tomorrow. Squeee!

The Oddness of Farewell

Kurt called me last night to tell me that Chris Flores passed away. Chris was my second boyfriend; we dated on and off over my sophomore and junior years in high school.

I cried a little, but I didn't stay in touch with him after I graduated. If Kurt hadn't told me, I'd likely nevr have known.

So odd. Loss, and yet it's not.

Rest in peace, Chris.

Boxes, Boxes...Everywhere!

We have many, many piles of boxes. Some are Dan's, but most are mine. I have a lot of stuff. And this is even after pruning things down to move in together, then further pruning to prep for this moving out.

And just as with our last move, we are interspersing our packing with games on the 360. :D Last summer was all about Civilization Revolution. This year, it's Fallout 3.

I'd been watching Dan play since I got him the game for his birthday. After a while, I decided it wasn't so scary and so I began playing it, too. I'm now further along in the main storyline than he is...hehehe!

It's been interesting to play the same game at different times. He's created another character to take advantage of some the things he's learned while watching me play. And all three of our characters are proceeding through the game in different ways, which means we've each discovered different areas and items...then have to bring the other characters up to date on the latest finds.

Movers are coming on Tuesday! It'll be very exciting and stressful.

Butch has a malignant growth on his tongue so will be at the vet's Tuesday. That gets him out of the place for a couple of days (he should be fine...but of course at his age, surgery is riskier than normal). We're still considering what to do with the cats. We may just put them all into the guest room with the stuff that isn't moving to the condo and hope they live through the day.

Now to pry a game controller from Dan so I can go swipe a bobblehead in Megaton. :D

Shopping

OSM and I went to the condo today where she sat in the living room admiring the view while I lined various drawers and cupboards. Afterwards, we went to Wallingford to have lunch and buy yarn.

In celebration of receiving my most recent royalty check, I splurged today on some luscious Panda Superwash bamboo yarn in a gold/magenta/black mix named Chocolate. It's very yummy! Currently making a pair of anklets for OSM, who has been wearing a pair of hospital-issue socks that I lent her the other night.

However, this yarn is so lovely, I may end up buying more just so I can make some for myself!

Also in our stars: a visit to Trophy Cupcake. I've heard about them but have never been. In the stress of the week, I got 3 cupcakes for myself and OSM selected a vanilla frosted vanilla cupcake for herself. Since there was a line to the register, I told OSM to have a seat until I'd paid.

While chatting with the girls behind the counter (they have like fifty staff members back there...it's really kind of neat), I glanced toward OSM and noticed her hobbling down the stairs and out the front door. I handed my debit card to one of the girls I was talking to and said, "I'll be back!" before dashing after OSM.

"Where are you going, Mom?"

She turned and appeared puzzled. Glancing around, she pointed toward one of the bistro chairs on the sidewalk and said, "I'm going to sit here."

I have no idea why she got up from her seat inside to walk all the way down the stairs outside, and I'm not sure she knows either. In any event, once she actually sat down, I raced back inside to get the cupcakes and my card back.

We haven't eaten our cupcakes yet. She went to bed early. It's been a busy day. =\

Second Verse, Same as the First

Our Sainted Mother is here for a two week visit.

Dan carried in OSM's bag from the car to the guest room, where I formally introduced him to her (the last time she saw him was last year when we came down for Chris's graduation, which she doesn't remember...and apparently had forgotten she'd just met him on the stairs coming into the house). He wandered off for a minute.

"That nice man who brought up my bag, is he your boyfriend?" asked OSM.
"Yes," I said. Dan came back into the room.
"You should introduce me."

I re-introduced them.

"Sorry she didn't introduce us before," OSM said apologetically. "She's forgetful like that."

Amazon Fresh

Seattle's always been a testing hotbed of delivery services. Back in the day, UPS got its start here. Later on, there came Home Grocer and Kozmo dot coms. And of course, Amazon.com.

Some folks hate it, but it is a local company after all, so I don't mind shopping with them. And, in our neck of the woods, they are reintroducing limited home grocery deliveries via Amazon Fresh.

While the product selection can be limited, we can get quite a few of our favorite items from them, saving us a stop at Safeway en route home. It's really handy.

And the nicest thing is that they will sneak up to your house before 6AM and silently pick up the bins from their last visit, replacing them with new bins full of food and beverage.

I love them!

Not sure whether or not we'll be able to take advantage of them at Dan's condo in the U-District. He'll be in a secure building, so I might need to start scheduling delivery for times when I'll actually be at home. Not nearly as convenient as having a stealth drop-off, but still okay.

Twisted Sister

This is Twisted Hourglass, a gorgeous sock pattern by Robin Griffiths. And would you believe (in my best Get Smart voice) that it's a free pattern?

Further, would you believe that I can make something this tidy? It's so beautiful. I can't believe I'm the one making it. Yes, it's taking me what seems like forever (it's been almost a month), and yes, I've had to re-start it at least 3 times due to knitter errors, but my goodness! Lookit! I'm knitting a beautiful thing!

Celebrate!

Since Dan's birthday is on Tuesday, and we're usually tired at the end of our workdays, we decided to celebrate today instead. I hid Dan's b'day gifts around so he had to do an Easter egg hunt of sorts (he hasn't found all of them yet).

Now we're just kicking back. Dinner tonight will be sushi, followed by Monsters v. Aliens in 3-D Imax.

Hoppy Oyster, everyone!

A Conversation with a Goober

Dan (asking where I've hidden his birthday gifts): Are you hiding them to taunt me?

Me: Why would I taunt you? So you can call me 'Tonto'? Not gonna happen, Kemosabe!

...

It's been one of those kinds of weeks.

Spring Day

It's so warm today that Dan and I are in our shorts and tank tops, windows wide open to let in the fresh air. Whee!

I'm taking allergy pills as all this freshness is killing me. :)

Finished my Mokira socks today, although since I have so much of the yarn left in the skein, I am debating whether I want to undo the cuff part and knit back up to make them longer on the leg.

My itchy bites are still pretty ugly but at least they aren't so itchy now. Still, I'm somewhat embarrassed by how my hands look, with all these swelling red dots on them. On the mildly amusing side, my encounter with bedbugs gave two of the guys at the office nightmares.

The sun is still up. I'm going to go finish some laundry. The mundane chores are never done.

The Condo

Dan's buying a condo, the one near UW with wallpaper on every wall. We'll probably be moving in late May.

Aieeeeeee!

The condo is half the size of the house we're in now, which is probably for the best. We hardly use the other bedrooms and being able to close their doors just means we haven't been getting rid of extra belongings as we have intended. This move, however, will force us to downsize.

I'll probably be putting some of my furniture on Craigslist. Let me know if any of you are interested in a very comfy bark-o-lounger, a TV, a queen-sized bed, a wicker armoire or perhaps a microwave. :)

Mokira

While at GDC, I optimistically packed three different sock projects, thinking I'd spend more time sitting in one place than I actually did.

Our hotel (which, despite the bedbugs in our room, was pretty nice) was in the civic center of town, a block away from city hall. Moscone was about fifteen blocks or so away. I haven't been walking a lot, not since the plantar fasciitis came along, so I was worried about the distance.

Everything turned out okay, though. I do have a blister on my heel, but otherwise am okay (just bitten all to hell). It's a good thing my feet don't hurt because this freaking itchiness is driving me insane! Grr!

Mokira is the only sock I actually got to work on during the trip. I'd bought the yarn as I thought it was a pinkish purple, but upon knitting it up it's really more pink. Very pretty but not very purple.

I finished the first sock on the flight back from San Francisco and have started on the second. And even better, I learned how to Magic Loop while knitting the first sock (and bought new circular needles as souvenirs of my trip), so now I'm zipping along the second sock very happily. Yay!

Anniversaries

Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary in typical fashion. We did whatever came to mind. Originally, we had planned to pick up a couple of steaks at the butcher shop and feast at home, but then we went for a drive to look at a condo open house.

Open houses are always interesting. I like seeing how other people have decorated (or as they say these days, staged) their homes. And while I love looking at places I could never afford, Dan is more practical and looks only at stuff he might actually be able to buy when he's ready.

This time, we went to the only high-rise in the U-district and looked at a couple of units. One was very well-maintained that despite having wallpaper in every room (I kid you not; we may go back just to take photos of it as it's unbelievable how much wallpaper is in this place), we thought it was pretty cool. The other unit was updated and on a much higher floor. Both had splendid views as construction that high is no longer allowed in the area.

Then we looked at an early 80s nightmare condo in Bellevue before having dinner at the same restaurant at which we ate before we decided to give dating a go.

And then it started snowing again. Right now, our backyard is a lumpy blanket of white. It snowed rather fiercely yesterday, too, but the weather warmed up such that it didn't stick to the streets.

In other news, I finished the second Twitterpated sock. Yay! And even though the yarn has lightly tinted my size 2 needles a pale blue, I am going to wear the socks today without washing them first because I want to.

Blarg, blarg, blarg

The week starts off with planning, which is always a stressful time for Dan. I belong to just one scrum team, but he is scrum master for more than that. It's a lot of data to track.

Especially when, as happened to our team, someone else doesn't realize that "save until 3/3" means don't erase all the information on the white board...and so they erase it before we had entered our data into our database. Aiee!

Dan and I will be attending GDC at the end of the month. We'll board Butch and let the cats fend for themselves (or maybe get Jose to peek in on them; lord knows, I've watched his cats often enough). As usual, I can't wait to head into Chinatown to eat! Muahahahaha!

We plan to stay over Saturday and come back Sunday so we have four days of conferencing and a day of milling around aimlessly. I'd ask if any of you guys are going to GDC, but since no one's updated their links I doubt you'll see this. Heh!

Twitterpated

Finished my first sock using actual factual sock yarn and itty bitty knitting needles (size 2 sock needles). It's a pattern called Twitterpated, which I figured would be perfect for my skills...plus the name's really cute. It's an easy to memorize stitch pattern. And although I decided at the last minute to graft the toe, the pattern itself calls for a simple draw-through-the-center closure, similar to making a hat. All in all, I'm very pleased. It's comfortable and pretty.

Of course as I was trying to lay out the sock to take a photo, a cat appeared to sit right where the sock was going to be. You can't necessarily get a feel for the cuteness of the sock pattern when distracted by Mittens, so here's a close-up of the pattern.

Another Weekend

Yesterday, we were slackers without a cause. Other than a desire to drive out to Seattle to look at a vacant house, we had no goal.

The happy end to the night was dinner with Kevin and Candyce, followed by dessert at an Italian place. We each chose something different from everyone else's and so got a little taste of more than half of the dessert menut. Huzzah!

Today is even a less-focused day. I really want to finish my Lady Eleanor shawl, and I will be done before I go to sleep (except for the fringe). In between knitting, I took time to make a potato-sausage-garlic bake for lunch, as well as a vat of marinara sauce to freeze for future use.

I feel very lazy! In fact, I am still in my pajamas! Hahaha! Lazy, lazy, lazy!

Before I finish my last couple of Lady E. tiers, I am going to take a bath. We have a luxuriously large and 80s pink tub in the master bath. It's ginormous and unfortunately the jets in it don't work. It's also larger than the hot water heater can handle, so we take the electric tea kettle and boil extra water to pour in. It's definitely decadent, which is why I normally just shower.

But laziness deserves some decadence and so I am going to indulge myself.

Socks to You!

Finished the re-do of The Socks That Are Too Small and had Dan try it on; it fits!

But apparently the leg portion is still not as long as he might like. Sadness. On the bright side, I could point out that it is slightly longer than the sample sock he gave me, so it's not like I deliberately short-socked him.

Went to a yarn fair today and bought some more sock yarn; these are going to be for me. Love the name of sock yarns, I tell ya! I have Socks That Rock, Tofutsies and Twinkle Toes. Gonna finish the second sock for Dan and then begin a pair for myself!

Hmmm....

Apparently the comments are slightly weird, occasionally, although they work sometimes. I have no idea how to fix them. This is one of them thar pre-made templates so when I look at the code, all I see is #@$!%%!!!

And that's what I say while looking at it, too.

Maybe I'll just switch to a different template and see if that works. Too tired to do so tonight.

Sunshine (the sweater) is at a dividing point, where I put the sleeve bits onto bits of waste yarn while I finish off the body bits. Later on, I come back to do the sleeve bits.

Dan tried on the sock I finished tonight, hereinafter referred to as The Sock That Was Too Small. It fit along the foot, but the heel and the leg portions were short. So I did what any good knitter does; I frogged it.

Cast on for them again but will begin actual knitting on them tomorrow. Maybe.

Mean Girls

I've never seen the movie before but it's on TV now and it's pretty funny. =)

Sunshine

...on my shoulders...in this photo:

Sunshine...on my shoulders...looks so lovely!

((sorry, John Denver, I couldn't help it...but I'm not the one who named this pattern anyway))

I'm using a soy/wool blend with beautiful teal-purple colors. It's called Mermaid Mix, although after looking at the photos I thought, "It looks more like Oil Slick." But it's very soft and gorgeous.

The only problem is that Sunshine is a long-sleeved cardigan and that means I will be fretting about matching colors on both sleeves with the body. That won't be very easy. So I'm keeping open the possibility that I may need to buy something solid to form a large "stripe" on the sleeve.

Also right now: knitting a hat for myself, about 80% done on my second Lady Eleanor and bought grey wool to make Dan's a pair of socks. Plus the skulls baby blanket for Jack, who turned one last month.

We'll see how it goes. Oddly, the stuff I knit for myself seems to be taking forever. I guess it's the lack of urgency as I don't need to finish them for Christmas or something. Maybe I need to set a personal goal to finish things!

Knitting Along

I've really enjoyed knitting; I think that's not much of a surprise to anyone who's been reading this here blog! But I've never really tackled anything particularly difficult.

When I think about all the projects I've been doing, they sort of grow one into the next in terms of techniques. The first baby blanket I knit, for Amy and Isaac, was pretty simply constructed on a diagonal with lacy yarn overs. I learned how to do increases and later realized all the yarn overs in that blanket are done incorrectly! I'd just learned how to knit Continental and was still shaky on the differences between that and the English method.

Now I know better :)

Once my friends stopped having babies, I began branching out into scarves with different yarn types. Poor Candyce received one of the experiments: a super bulky purple keyhole scarf that, though I used huge needles and made "skinnier" than normal, is still dense enough to choke a llama (and I'll re-knit if for you, Can, if you unearth it!).

Each project helped me see how stitches ought to sit; how increases and decreases matched up; how to pick up stitches; how to cast on in different ways. I've been on Ravelry for a year now and it opened up a whole new world of projects and possibilities!

My "stash" of yarn is now more wool and natural fibers than the boxes of acrylics that I had gotten from Suz, via Broos. I've knit with alpaca, silk, wool, soy and now have a hank of yarn made of banana fiber. Bananas! I've learned how to wind hanks of yarn into neat center-pull balls.

I've further learned that it takes viewing both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to wind 1,400 yards of laceweight yarn into a ball by hand. =)

My foray into fingerless gloves taught me about kntting small things in the round, which naturally led to the year-end sock project. My new socks are nice and warm; I've worn them several times now. Can't wait to make more, to try out more techniques.

And so, I am participating in a Knit-Along (abbreviated as KAL, because knitters are funny that way) that takes obscure-but-cool projects and knits them at the same time. It provides a support group of folks who are doing the same project while not confining one to knitting at the same time and place as everyone else.

I chose to knit Sunshine, a cute pullover. Hopefully all the techniques I've learned thus far will help me make it fit for a two-armed human to wear!

Evil has a New Name

For even though we have two visitors (Chotto on the left, Niea on the right), it is Chotto who's tearing it up.

Damage (that I know of) so far:

--Mynocks chewed through the power cables...our led Christmas tree lights are out. Not only did Chotto chew through them, he ate part of the wires. While they were on.

--Knocked over my huge fern and its plant stand. Onto the heater. A forced air heater, but heat nonetheless.

--Destroyed an as-yet-unhung cascade of mylar snowflakes.

We will be locking them back into their room at night.

Grrr! Crash! Bang! Aiee!

That's what it sounded like at, oh, I dunno, 6AM in our house.

Apparently Chotto was exploring the highest reaches of our laundry room, which includes wire shelving upon which we store things. Scared up there, no doubt, but Basement Cat who caught him in a room with only one exit.

After the scrambling settled, Dan got out to see what had happened and found Scooter's folding cat carrier on the floor. Chotto must've surfed it down off the wire shelves.

It's going to be a looooong day.

It could have been worse. They could've been climbing our tree, with all its breakable ornaments. Let us hope they cannot read blogs and now have a new idea in their little heads.

Supposed to snow again here during the day, but I must take Old Paint out to the emissions testing place (smog testing to y'all in California) as my tabs are up for renewal. I could have, had I been an efficient woman, done this earlier. But that's not my way. So instead, I need to head up a hill on a snowy day in my rear-wheel drive vehicle and hope for the best.

A Leisurely Weekend

Despite the snow (only a little over an inch), Dan and I went for a short walk around the neighborhood. That's the first walk I've taken since the 3-Day. It probably took us longer to bundle up than the amount of time we were outside!

Started playing Mass Effect this morning. Dan dug it out and has been playing for the past couple of days again, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's essentially KotOR without the Star Wars overlay. You have your ancient aliens rediscovered, a dude who's gone off and disappeared and now he's your guyses enemy, love interests and dark/light side choices in dialog.

So far, I don't really like the opening chest mini-game as the penalty is too harsh for failure. Watching Dan driving around in combat is pretty intense, too, as the vehicle is somewhat cumbersome and reacts in peculiar ways. It can't just back up, for example; it executes a three-point turn. Not good when the enemy is firing on your ass!

All the cats know about all the other cats at last, as Niea came downstairs and introduced herself to Melody this morning. Other than a broken snowman (we think it was Chotto trying to leap into a shelf), nothing terrible has happened. And it was pretty funny when Mittens was growling at Scooter and Niea came up to help him :) The three of them were at a total impasse for quite some time!

It supposed to be cold this whole week. I like cold, but not freezing. Hence, a fire again! And mulled cider! And soon, another go at Mass Effect. Bwahahahaha!

Yes, Honey!

The game went rather well, with Ohio State beating Michigan rather handily. They brought in their former starting quarterback (a senior) and he threw a touchdown pass. How nice!

In the afternoon, Dan's dad (Ed) mentioned a hankering for a chocolate cake. Dutifully, I consulted my cookbooks and decided that the only cake which would not require me to make a trip to the store was Nigella Lawson's Honey-bee Cake.

Oh, my goodness. My sweet, sticky, chocolately goodness. Ed helped me by licking out the batter bowl and wondering why I'd bothered putting the rest of it into the oven. He also helped clean up the spatula much later when I glazed the cake. And later still, when we removed the glaze-covered strips of parchment paper from beneath the cake, he set those aside and cleaned them up as well.

And then he had two generous slices of cake with a large glass of milk.

I'd say it turned out rather well. I will make another one for game night at Candyce's sometime as it's really incredibly decadent. Mmm, decadence!

Page 56

This game is going around Facebook and it reminds me of how Barb and I used to read random sentences to each other from different books when we were kids. So easily amused, we were :) Copying in the rules as posted by Karen Clark:

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

The book closest to me happens to be Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, which is a lovely chatty discussion of knitting projects to be done throughout the year.

My sentence is: You may also increase every second or every fourth round.

I love the fact that all the other responses in Karen's thread (since she's from BioWare) seem to be books on games, writing or game strategy guides :D

It's Really Over =(

Congrats to the EQII team for launching another cool expansion today! Yay!

It's the first one I had absolutely nothing to do with. Zip! Nada!

Feels really weird to me. Sometimes I still feel as though it's "my" game, but I know that everything is different there. The team is different, the way the game's put together has changed and they're doing stuff now that I'm not familiar with. Bittersweet, it is.

Swept the floor and mopped tonight in preparation for Dan's dad's arrival. Didn't clean up as much as I thought I would, though. Possibly I'm just lazy. Or maybe it's that I don't think anyone cares about this crap as much as I do.

In Today's News...

Dan's dad will be here for a couple of weeks starting on Wednesday. We've been picking up stuff and generally trying to pretend we're, you know, like, grown-ups who can take care of a house.

I am not sure we are that successful, but we try!

Today's adventure was finding a way to get our Rock Band guitars off the floor. They'd been in little baskets by the TV which was fine, other than they detracted from Ninja Dude's coolness by cluttering up his background.

After consulting on the internets and traipsing through the hardware store, we finally ended up at a music shop where we bought real guitar hanger-upper-thingers. Our two Rock Band guitars are now Art in the hallway. And Ninja Dude stands out again!

I like playing the drums in Rock Band 2 as it's a heckuva lot easier for me to follow along. The guitar stuff always throws me off and I'm not comfortable singing songs that I don't know. Somehow, sitting behind the little drum set is okay. I think there are maybe 3 songs total that I've ever heard of before. Since I don't know the rest of them, I just focus on those little colored lines and the beat.

Still playing on easy mode, but that's challenging enough for me. :)

How I spent my day

I knit, therefore I purled.

Knitting into Fall

I finally finished my Lady Eleanor scarf and have ordered some Noro Silk Garden to make another.

Cheapskate that I am, I only bought the Noro because Webs was having a closeout sale on some of its colors, so I got 12 skeins of colorway 246 for $5.79 per skein, instead of the usual $10.95 per.

I've also finished my birthday gifts for Emma, spawn of SteveD. I made a little hat featuring a merry band of owls and a pair of mittens that actually turned out. I showed Steve the photo of the first mitten and he said it looked like a condom. :P Just goes to show that his mind is in the gutter.

Meanwhile, I also have some lovely Knit Picks Imagination fingering yarn and spent my morning browsing through scarf and wrap patterns, trying to choose the right one. I think I've found it. I'm going to make an expanded version of Brooke's Column of Leaves scarf. Since my yarn's fingering weight, I can possibly make a triple repeat of the pattern without it being too heavy. We'll see how it goes.

And in other other news, Steve and I finally heard back about our book chapter. Friday I spent rushing around via email begging for the okay to use snippets of various things to show as samples in our chapter. It's funny how we've been waiting for over six months since we sent in our draft and now that the editors got back with us, we have to turn everything in on Monday.

On the bright side, the chapter didn't seem so frighteningly disjointed as it had the last time I read it. Apparently it's approved with time ;)

Vice Presidential debates

Before...


...and After.

A Day on the Island

The island was Whidbey Island, where Dan and I went on our day off. Fortunately, the day that we had picked a day in advance that turned out to be one of the best sunshiney days in the month.

We bought the rug pictured above. Dan called it the Klingon rug, so we had to have it. It's a lovely soft wool and currently lives in the lower entrance hall, pointing the way to our downstairs living area. It's adorable!

We wish to know what it says, so if you or anyone you know has any idea what...please to leave comments!Qa Tlho'!

Most of the day was spent in Langley, wandering the streets, strolling along the grey sand beach and having a late lunch at a bistro. Then we drove up the island to cross back via the bridge at Deception Pass. You can see some photos of us being silly there on my flickr page.

It was really a wonderful day. Traffic flowed nicely in the directions in which we wished to travel. Ferry boats waited for us to board. The sun warmed up the world juuuust enough to be comfortable but not too hot.

A beautiful day! With Klingons!

Nesting

I've been nesting the past couple of weeks, thinking about the rental house and what needs to go into making it a home. And while for most chicks nesting means stuff for the house (and it's not like I'm not thinking about that), for me it's turned into a bout of knitting.

While at Candyce's, I started working on my snowdrop shawl in Cashwool, a soft brown merino wool. It's lovely in hand and took Episodes IV and VI of Star Wars to wind from a hank into a ball. An odd measurement of time, but it did actually take me viewings of both movies to complete the winding!

I'd have watched Empire Strikes Back, too, except that it was in the living room when Candyce packed all my movies. The only two DVDs left outside a box were the ones I watched.

As I'm knitting, I feel less tense and stressed. It's a very fiddly pattern for me, being all delicate, so it requires much concentration and that helps take my mind off things that have been making me sad. I've ripped it back several times already, but figure that unless the mistakes are horrendous (such as forgetting the yarn overs), I may just forge ahead. For example, my ssk's are kind of wonky, but no matter, I knit on unperturbed. Mostly.

It's probably the fact that I need to keep my mind focused on things that makes knitting so relaxing for me. While I don't like having to rip back, it doesn't seem to annoy me as much as it should.

In any case, I'm not sure how long this shawl will take. I'm putting in lifelines as I go along to ensure that I don't need to rip all the way back to the first stitch. We'll see how that goes.

Cherubs

I'm sitting at Candyce's computer, wrapped up in one of her bathrobes, listening to the sound of the fish tank gurgling. The cats are in the kitchen, hoping someone will feed them soon, but their mom is still asleep. I'm so grateful for good friends like Candyce, who lift my spirits and let me cry. Friends who stood by me in rough times and gave my little children nicknames when they misbehaved.

It was over ten years ago when Cecily, upon hearing stories of my boys and their active little boy ways started calling them "cherubs" because they so were not. She also nicknamed my obviously wrong boyfriend "Mr. Wrong" and mentioned how he was wrong for me just like her occasional boyfriend was wrong for her. We called him "Mr. Wrong's Cousin."

When I first started working at Regence, I was afraid of Cecily a little. At six-feet tall, she cut an imposing figure, quiet and assured with a wonderfully sardonic sense of humor. The first time I heard her laugh was the day that Lynda, Annabelle and I had to share a conference room with her because she was doing paperwork and the three of us were recording a song I wrote as a farewell for Deborah, another of our coworkers. We finished our recording and Cecily shook her head at us, laughing and telling us we were all nuts.

(And we were, too. Later on, Annabelle and I reprised the song for our VP at a Christmas party. It was pretty funny, if I may say so, being to the tune of "Mr. Sandman" and having to do with the physicians who called us on the customer service phone lines. I still remember most of it even now, but it's much better sung in close harmony...really.)

I haven't been in touch with Cecily since before Rob moved out here. We had lunch and dinner a couple of times after I left Regence, but I was busy with my multiple jobs and we just sort of drifted apart.

Melani left me a message yesterday that Cecily's passed away. I'm so sad and my heart feels like its been stomped on. I haven't seen her in years, yes, but I still call my children Cherubs and still refer to Erik as "Mr. Wrong," and it's all because of Cecily. She was supremely supportive when I went through my first divorce and was just an all-around nice person. Funny, cheeky and she had the best collection of cool eyeglass frames I've ever seen.

Thanks for being my friend, Cecily...I wish I had been a better friend myself.

Snow in July

Snowdrops, actually, as I am once again going to work on Yarn Harlot's snowdrop shawl pattern. I set the pattern aside last year to make baby blankets but would really like to finish one of these shawls.

I already have off-white mohair which I found kind of snarky to work with (just as Steph and Gryph had said...the little prophets), and then saw this here Cherry Tree Hill Orenburg lace yarn (in Monet) at the discount yarn website...and there you go. I bought two skeins of the stuff.

I must be mad.

Candyce came over today after dim sum to help me pack up some stuff. Yay! I'm very glad to have had her company. We gossiped and chatted while putting away my living room thingers, until I ran out of boxes small enough for my books.

The house we're moving into is a 2200 square foot split-level. Dan and I surveyed our furnishings and realized we have only "downstairs" furniture. At some point, we shall have to make like grown-ups and by "upstairs" stuff. At least a couch of some kind. Maybe a light fixture. I dunno. We'll have to finish packing and moving in before we know for sure!

Sunshine and Something

The forecast is sunny, looking out the window. Birds are a'singin and the cottonwood fluff is...matted to the ground! Finally!

I hate cottonwood fluff. It floats through the air, all sweet and ethereal, then gets in your clothes, your hair, your nose...and is most annoying. It's so nice to look out a window and not see a snowstorm of fluff floating past!

Dan bought me some flowers yesterday...tall, exotic spears of ginger, bird-of-paradise and a type that neither of us amateur botanists could identify. He also included a gladiolus, which is an interesting, soft contrast to the other waxy flowers. They're on the dining table right now. I had to scold Scooter (his cat) as she was showing way too much interest in the palm fronds.

I hope the flowers make it through the day.

Sad news...Candyce's pet Leia passed away yesterday. =( I was here on holiday in 2006 and went with her to pick Leia up. When we played games one night, Kevin brought down each of us a rat to keep us company, and Leia curled up within my fleece vest the entire time. She was so sweet and pretty. I'll miss her.

Lazy Afternoon

We are just in from breakfast with the cherubs and Jonathan Gibbons, who never comes to visit us (hahaha, poor Jonathan Gibbons, whose name I can never say without appending that phrase).

A lovely breakfast, an exchange of gifts (Phil brought me Almond Roca for Mother's Day and I gave him Rock Band for graduation) and then they went their way and Dan and I meandered home past all my old stomping grounds in Federal Way.

The sun is shining. It's in the 60s and possibly going to reach the low 70s. I have two brand new Sims2 expansions to try out. And then later, we're going head to Puyallup for Phil's graduation.

This will be a lazy, lazy afternoon...other than all the driving around!

Milestones

What an interesting weekend. I walked a gazillion (well, maybe eight) miles; watched a couple new episodes of Top Gear; took Butch for a walk so Dan could make it to D&D on time; submitted my early lease termination letter and tendered it to my apartment.

They require sixty days' notice, so my move out day will be July 31st. Dan and I are renting an apartment together in August.

Well.

It'll be much easier on Mittens, who misses me when I'm not at home. It'll be easier on me, as I am wracked with guilt for not always sleeping at my own apartment and leaving Mittens to the mercy of the electronic self-cleaning litter pan (which he's slightly wary of...especially since the day he was stalking it and I sneezed just as he approached it...oops).

Our new place will be probably all of five minutes from Kevin and Candyce's house, on a different slope of the same hill. It's the only apartment complex on that bit of road, surrounded by McMansions. There are a dog park, a grocery store, a Sbux and a gas station within walking distance (although, frankly, if we have to walk to a gas station then we have more issues than I care to think of).

Time to head to the office!

An Adventure at Peet's

I had my tits grabbed by a stranger this afternoon at Peet's. Dan and I were sitting outside with our cups of coffee when this guy neither of us knew walked up, put his stuff down on our table and within minutes, palmed my boobs.

Of course, he was only two years old and cute as a button. His hands were soapy after he dumped out his bubble solution and clearly, he needed to wipe them somewhere. What better place than on some nice lady's chest?

His mom was horrified, but we were all laughing so much that it wasn't a traumatic incident. And before Joaquim grabbed my tits, Dan had said (his hands full with Joaquim's toy plane and stuffed bear) that Joaquim was going to wipe his hands on me. Clearly, my own cherubs are old enough that I didn't recognize what Joaquim was up to as it hadn't occurred to me until his little palms were already on me. His mom and her friend sat at the table next to us and Joaquim ran around us, chasing bubbles (before he dumped out all the soap) and generally giggling and chatting.

Joaquim seemed completely oblivious to the dog at the table on the other side of us. Eventually he tried to teach the dog to blow soap bubbles, which led to the pup winding himself around his owner's chair, trying to get away.

A beautiful weekend of sunshine and game night and coffee and titty grabbing!

This coming week will be busy, so I'm not sure I will post again (though I might). On Tuesday, I'm off to Vancouver. Wednesday night, I come back at 11PM. That night at midnight, Dan and I are going with Kevin and Candyce to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Thursday afternoon, Dan and I head to San Diego for the weekend for Chris' graduation.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Photos are up

Photos from Ohio as well as the company's open house this past Wednesday are now up on flickr.

My shoulder and neck hurt. Grr. Dan's back hurts, too, now, so we are quite the creaky pair.

Next week, I'm going up to Vancouver International Game Summit, where I get to be a speaker. Aiee!

Time to take some ibuprofen.

A Day with His Holiness

On Friday, I'm very, very excited to attend a panel discussion presented by Seeds of Compassion which includes the 14th Dalai Lama as one of the panelists. So excited!

I've got a ticket to the first event of the day, a discussion about the scientific basis of compassion. Oooh. Science and compassion...two things that interest me! Yay!

Later that afternoon, I'm going with Candyce (although we won't be sitting together) to the Concert for Compassion and the pre-concert panel discussion with His Holiness and Dave Matthews.

I wasn't originally going to attend the concert, but as game night in the office was breaking up this evening, Kevin mentioned that he was going to try and sell his ticket as he couldn't attend after all. Well. We can't have Candyce attend an event downtown by herself, can we? :)

Very exciting! I've always wanted to see His Holiness so I'm really looking forward to the events!

Spring Snow!

I had no idea there was snow on the ground until Candyce texted me last night to worry about whether she and Kevin would be able to make it down the hill to our first dim sum double-date.

Peering outside, indeed, a good couple of inches blanketed the neighborhood!

However, it's warming up today and so it's dripping off the balconies and sliding off the roof. Kevin texted me a bit ago to say it's slush up by their house, which is on a pretty steep slope, so they're going to try to meet us after all.

I'm sitting here refiling my taxes, I'd forgotten that I had had Chris as my dependent, but he's already filed taxes and thus my federal return burped back to me. Alas, removing him from my return brought down the amount I get back. Aiee!

At least it's still a refund and not an owing!

Boyfriend has arrived, so now we are off into the snow to get us some dim sum! Yay!

Sunshine

One of the things that's so nice about daylight savings time, once you get used to it, is that it remains light here until 8PM.

Later on in the summer, it'll be light out until after 9PM.

The long days lend themselves to all sorts of activity. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Missy and I dedicated to our practice walks in advance of the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Wednesday is game night at the office.

Mondays are going to be my day to sit and vegetate with my cats, I think. Here they are now, curled up at my side, following me when I wander into another room, then coming back out to sit beside me again. They are faithful little shadows and I love them.

Yesterday was the lovely, long and lazy day that I'd been looking forward to all week. We belated realized that it was Easter and figured it would be easier to buy groceries than to stalk restaurants for brunch. We made bacon and eggs and had a pastry chaser. Well. Okay. Several pastry chasers.

You know what the best part is? He isn't allergic to anything and can pack away the sweets as well as I can. :) There's nothing more lonesome than dating someone who doesn't eat the same sorts of things you do in relative quantities. We don't have to like everything exactly the same, but there needs to be enough overlap to make dining together an experience instead of an ordeal.

Speaking of ordeals, poor Rob and I were once again stymied in our attempt to have dinner at Jak's. By the time we got to the restaurant, the wait for a table (they don't do reservations) was nearly two hours. Once again, we headed to Outback instead. A steak dinner is never disappointing, so long as the steak is done right and the company good. And despite not being at the restaurant we wanted to try out, dinner was great :)

New Hats for Old!

After debating what I should do with my rolling metal cart (the one displaced as a desk by my new corner workstation), I've decided to transform the dear little thing into a rolling tea cart instead.

As soon as I remember where I stored my wood grain contact paper, that is. Meanwhile, it sits in all it's putty/oatmeal glory in the dining room, topped with an Ikea tray that I've had for a long while.

I also signed up for a different dating site, which I'm not sure whether I'll stay with or not. Vaguely do I recall that it used to be something different, a site for various internet quizzes. Now it's a dating website with tests.

While I like taking random internet tests, I was a bit put off when some of the questions on the matching quiz were all about sex. And not your basic, "So...do you like to have sex?" but stuff like, "So...would you rather be the dominant or submissive?" and "How about a three-way?" and "What about anal sex?" There were quite a number of these questions mixed in with some political stuff and where you would prefer to go on holidays.

It just seems to me these types of questions might be the things you'd discuss with someone after you've met and decided to further your relationship. But apparently, this website is using them for some mystical mathematical computation for matches.

Yet again, I am done in by math!

Three Days

I've done a lot of odd things in my life. Some folks are surprised to learn that I spent 12 years in the Army Reserves and National Guard. Some folks are surprised that my little cherubs are 21 and 18.

And some are probably surprised that I'm planning to spend three days in September walking 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Sixty miles! That's like, I dunno, sixty times around a mall!

In any case, some of you have probably received (if your spam filters didn't eat it!) the email I sent out earlier today explaining why I'm participating in the event, so I won't go into that here.

It's pretty interesting; I extracted email addresses from my Yahoo account and then the walk website saves them, so I wasn't paying attention to all the folks who'd be getting the email.

On the bright side, I learned that the Wiesmans (for whom I once babysat their firstborn son) have a second son who's going to turn one tomorrow. Wow! Who knew? Not me!

And on the other bright side, one of the guys I met at Fan Faire a couple of years ago received the email and immediately made a donation. I haven't talked with him in ages, so that was really a surprise to me.

So there's only bright sides to this! Yay!

Until the blisters arrive...

In the Background...

...on a CNN video. Muahahahaha!

If you want to skip all the other junk, just move to the 5 minute mark. They have a clip of our party and an interview with Sherry, our art producer (the Sherry whose boots are on my flickr page).

I grieve to note that most of the coverage for the event adds an extra E to my name. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all!

Stuff. And Things.

I was thiiiiiis close to going to Munich for my birthday. ThIIIIIIIs close! But between me picking out seats and clicking on purchase, the price jumped nearly $300! Not good!

Instead, I'll make do with my night-and-day in San Francisco for GDC. I'm on a little panel about the game I'm currently working on. The panel happens during a reception our company is hosting that week. Should be fun...being on a panel after an hour of bar-filled socializing. Heh!

Maybe I might even get to see one of my FlyerTalk friends, Kalkat (aka Lisa), who lives in the area and had hosted a deck party for us in September. She's a really nice person, very thoughtful and considerate. I wouldn't mind if I had enough time to hang out with her again!

I'm burning out on baby blankies...so none of the rest of you get knocked up, please :D At the moment, I have set aside SimSlayer Joe's blanket (nearly done) and am now working on a little shoulder wrap for myself. Jean and I are also thinking of taking a cable knitting class in March. Now, I have done cables before, but it would be fun to take a class with Jean! I also have some thick brown yarn that I was hoping would be enough to make a vest-type thinger out of...bought on clearance for a buck a skein before I left San Diego. We shall see!

My second massage therapy session went really well and I'm in less pain...haven't had to sleep using Tylenol PM as I did the first couple of nights after last week's session. You may think massage is all relaxing and peaceful, but DANG, that session left me in agony! The next session was much better as she worked on releasing more of the tension to bring my body back into symmetry. My next appointment is tomorrow morning, and I hope that brings further relief to my poor neck and shoulder.

We end with a story from the Irony Can Be So Ironic Department. I love Microsoft Access and had created some really intense forms with reports and stuff back in my Blue Shield days. For years thereafter, I carted around my reference materials even though I wasn't using Access. I didn't unload them until leaving San Diego to move back to Seattle.

This week I spent considerable time thwapping myself on the forehead, trying to remember how to do stuff as I've been creating tables and queries...in Access! Which I still love, but have forgotten much of what I once knew about its innards. So sad to have carried my reference stuff not quite all the way up to the point where I would actually need it again.

Aieee!

More Writing

A quick post before I retreat with what seems to be a growing migraine...I'm not sure that it is, but one never knows.

Our Senior VP of Marketing, Torrie, asked if I would contribute to a blog on the company website.

!

They are having an artist draw a cartoon likeness of me to go alongside any of the posts I make.

!!

I will need to write more.

!!!

If it doesn't happen for whatever reason, I'm still flattered beyond words that they would think of me (and I suggested other potential other writers to her, so it's not like they want only me) to participate.

And now to bed. My Tylenol PM is kicking in and I need to lie down. But this new opportunity has been swimming around in my mind all weekend and I just had to say something.

Writer's Block

It's probably made of cast iron as it weighs a ton and is holding me down. :(

SteveD probably hates me at this moment. I've been struggling with streamlining our chapter into one cohesive narrative, but have failed miserably. Every time I opened our document, it stared back at me. All his prose looking so polished and complete; all my words jumbled and disorganized. I struggled with it, rearranging paragraphs. Editing sentences. Adding headings. Nothing I did made it seem less cobbled together from the writings of a genius (him) and a goober (duh).

I dreamt that he let me hold Emma and I dropped her. When I woke up, I realized it wasn't his actual child I had dropped, but his literary progeny.

The chapter is now back in Steve's hands so that he can strangle me while he whips it into shape with characteristic flair and cussing. I dread being on IMs tomorrow, for he shall surely flail the skin off my computer screen with irritation.

Though I doubt he would ever say or think the same of me, I miss him :)

I am also honestly suffering from the inability to string together bundles of phrases as quickly as I would like. It irks me. Everything I write sounds to me like everything else I've ever done.

Desperately in need of inspiration. Hepl?

Further Tales of Unpacking

A couple of years ago, Dianne and I spent a weekend reading and then burning up our high school letters. Unpacking a box with my high school yearbooks, I found the journal notebook from my freshman year.

Most of the pages had been consigned to the flames, but I'd apparently also started writing in the middle of the book and those pages were intact. They could serve as perfect fodder for The Salon of Shame!

And I suppose that I'm happy to have these particular pages as they detail the days leading up to and immediately following my very first kiss :) How nice. I do wish I'd spent a little more time on some details, such as what I'd overheard that made me so positive that Paul was playing some sort of game with me. All I can remember now is overhearing him talking with Bill about me and Dianne, and that they thought we were silly little freshman...but there was more to it and that's the part I don't recall.

We were all in a play. Dianne and I were freshman; Paul was a senior. Of course, now that I'm older and I re-read the entries, I'm more inclined to believe that he may have actually liked me, even just a little. Of course, that's probably just wishful retroactive thinking. Who know what he really thought about me.

I saw Paul a couple of times after he graduated. Once the following year, I ran into him at that year's graduation ceremony and we had lunch together. Then, when I was looking for apartments for me and Dianne after we'd graduated from high school, he drove past me sitting outside one of them. We kept in touch for a little while after that, but I was dating someone at the time and eventually, when I moved back in with my mom, I lost touch with him.

But growing in the jungle of plants outside her apartment is the plant he'd given to me as a housewarming gift. A memento of someone that I liked, once upon a time.

The Random Bits

Poor Broos. The target of random chicks texting him :)

A week ago, it was not "drunk texting" as he may suspect (even though we were texting him in the early afternoon from a pub), but just that everyone at the table was speaking about him and I suggested we text him. So I did...which caught him by surprise as it was a work day...but since Candyce had the day off AND Burnsie and Shienna were still in town, Kevin and I decided to also take the day off and there you go. Straight to a pub.

Tonight, Candyce and I went to dinner and yet again we were thinking of Broos...so we whipped out our phones and started texting him. Muahahahaha!

When are you coming to visit us???

Over dinner, Candyce told me a sad story. Her mom's boss flew with his wife and mom on holiday to Australia. Just before landing, the crew asked if there was a doctor on the flight. And so he was...and to his shock, the patient "at the back" was his mother, who passed away before landing.

Now, this is a very sad story...can you just imagine going through something like this?

But as someone who loves to travel, I said, "He was up front (ie, first or business class) and he let his mom fly economy? What's wrong with him?!"

Candyce said, "Poor woman...she didn't even get to see Australia."

"Maybe she had a heart attack looking out the window," I said. We both bowed our heads in sympathy for such a horrible incident. Then I added, "Just think...he flew her there in economy...and when she goes home, she'll be in with the cargo."

These are the kinds of terrible things I say, not meaning anything malicious, but they just randomly pop out of my mouth. Candyce and I dissolved into giggles. We couldn't look at each other for a minute or so, because if our eyes met, we'd start giggling again.

Mittens is so cute. He's been playing with his little stuffed toys, rolling them around the apartment and chasing them. I love him to bits. I now have to make sure he hasn't got any toys in the bedroom before bedtime as he has been getting up at 2 or 3AM to play. The little goober.

Yeah, baby!

The luck of the jersey is with us...

Yay, Seahawks!!!

Go, Seahawks!

Their playoff game is today, versus the Washington Redskins. I'm sure Broos will be watching the game as well, but I would like my team to win. :)

I'm going to put on my Steve Largent throw-back jersey, prepare my snacks (I'm making an antipasti platter for myself), grab the knitting and watch like a...well, hawk!

Meanwhile, however, I must venture in to Sims 2: Pets. Yes, I know. But I made a cat that looks just like Mittens! So cute! The moment I saw they have tuxedo cats, I was hooked. Does that make me a hooker?

A Brand New Year

What's that you say? Bacon chocolate? That slice o'bacon in the photo is just an image on the box; the bacon in the bar is in little bits, enrobed in the creamy smooth chocolate. =) It's really, really good. Really!

If you weren't prohibited from pork products, Broos, I would send you some.

Photos from our New Year's Eve celebration are up on Flickr now.

And photos from the Fishtival at the Seattle Aquarium are up as well!

It's been really cool to see Burnsie and Shienna again. I know Candyce was happy to have more of her San Diego crew around for the holiday. We played some games last night after supper, waiting for the fireworks at the Space Needle to be televised.

Unfortunately, the fireworks had technical difficulties and the eight minute show was interrupted for a couple of minutes or so while some poor firework technician had to go out there on the roof to set off the fireworks manually. Let us hope this is not a prognosticator for the city this year!

After a lovely dim sum lunch today, we wandered down to the Aquarium. They've replaced its Imax with more exhibit space, which gives it an open almost airy feel. There are more tidepools with critters one can touch and the octopi are in a larger display. We were there in time for the octopus feeding, but apparently I'm the only one in our group who saw its tentacle reach out and wrap around the fish being offered to it on a skewer.

At the Northern Fur Seal tank, one of the seals stayed on a ledge near the plexiglass enclosure the entire time we were there, enabling us many opportunities to photograph him. I hope Burnsie's photos came out better than mine, as he has a much better camera!

I have one photo of two river otters curled up together, but it's way too dark. Burnsie also took photos of them so when he posts his photos you might get to see them as they really looked...so cute, so cuddly!

The day ended with dinner at Teapot, a vegan restaurant in Bellevue. Kevin and Candyce took me there when I came to visit them in 2006. The food is so good and the selection of teas fills both sides of a menu card. Mmm!

And now, I need to go to sleep, for tomorrow is a work day! Aieee! At least I have bacon chocolate for my midnight snack. Muahahahaha!

Ring Out the Old

I set up my desktop (still on the rolling file cart; I haven't been to Ikea yet) and updated all its little software needs. You'd be proud, Broos ;)

Then I worked through some of my Sims2 homes. For a lot of reasons, most of them ergonomic and heat-related, I haven't had the PC on in over a year. It was somehow comforting to see my families in suspended animation, waiting to continue their little dramas for my benefit. I may need to head out and pick up an expansion now!

This has been such an interesting year at work. Getting used to working on Free Realms; realizing how much I missed Seattle; being loaned back to EQII; and then getting a job with The Agency, which facilitated my moving back home. I'm looking forward to being back at work this week! Time off is nice, but I want to have a focus to enjoy time away from. Right now, I feel a bit disjointed.

I can't say that I was unhappy to work in San Diego, just unhappy living there. On the other hand, the other day I craved carne asada, which I don't know where to get up here. And, of course, there's no In'n'Out :) Then again, I know how to do a mileage run to LAX to get one! Muahahahaha!

Kevin and Shienna are visiting, so I'm planning to join them and Kevin and Candyce for New Year's Eve tonight.

Happy New Year, everybody!

I Suck!

Yes, indeed I do, for now I have my Royal Airo-pro RY2000!

I've never owned a cannister vacuum before. Ever since my first apartment, I've had an upright of some sort. But upon leaving San Diego, I decided to leave the old vacuum behind and get a new one once I settled in.

As some of you know, I collect airline miles and by shopping on-line at certain merchants, I get points for my purchases. Hence, I ordered my little vacuum and awaited its arrival. It got here on Thursday.

Yesterday, I unpacked it and set it up. This is the lightest vacuum in the world! I can practically swing it around by the hose. At the lower power setting (useful for curtains, which I don't have), it's extraordinarily quiet.

Mittens was offended, however. He and Melody retreated to the bedroom and every time the vacuum pooked in through the open door, he hissed and charged it, bristling with anger. Melody hid under the bed.

Later on, I plan to vacuum off their cat condos, which are each as furry as a sasquatch. The cats will really hate me then! Muahahahaha!

Condensation

Chris's schedule was so tight that he was only with me for a day and a half. He and Phil drove up in Phil's car (which is the same model Nissan that Chris has, only Phil has not lowered and put a cow scoop on the front of his) yesterday by 8:30AM to maximize the time.

As the time was short, we abbreviated everything, yet managed to do all our traditional holiday things in the short time we had. The cherubs hooked up my new surround sound system (a gift I bought for myself) so that we could enjoy the fullness of the Rebel Alliance zipping all over my living room via Star Wars. :)

Chris fell asleep and so Phil and I started watching a movie I'd given to him, Samurai. When Chris woke up, he was confused...where was Episode V, his puzzled expression conveyed.

"We're watching the correct movie," said Phil.

I added, "That's right. It's The Feudal Empire Strikes Back."

And of course, we did actually follow Samurai with the rest of Star Wars...because that's what we do. I cackled gleefully every time I heard the surround sound surrounding us. It's so cool! Hahaha!

The cherubs just left as Phil has to work this afternoon and Chris is going to go hang out with his friends until his flight leaves early tomorrow morning. I already miss them. :(

At least there's a game night tonight to help take my mind off the lack of cherubic chirpings in the apartment.

Wrapping it Up

I spent last night watching The Polar Express and wrapping gifts. As always, I lay out the things I've gotten for the cherubs and then fret that I haven't gotten them enough.

Their stockings are hanging up now, bulging with their favorite candies and I hope they like the things I did get for them. I will not see them until tomorrow.

I haven't decorated much this year at all (other than with cardboard...such a versatile material ;))

As I wrapped gifts, I had my laptop going and it started chirping at me. Matt IMs from South America, where he's travelling around through the beginning of next year. And Jean asks me to come over for Christmas supper!

Jean and I worked together at AIG. She was a manager and I was the president's assistant. Her husband Brian often called the office while he was on the road, and if Jean was on another call, he'd talk to me until she could pick up. As I spent my days with Jean as well as copious phone time with Brian, I got to know them both fairly well.

They often invited me over for holidays. Brian loves to cook; he went to a culinary school in San Francisco. Once I commented about his culinary experience to Jean and turns out she had been unaware he'd gone to a school for it. But I knew because he and I had talked about it.

Another time, I emerged from the bathroom with the empty toilet paper roll and asked where their recycle bin was. "Just put it in the trash," said Brian. "You recycle these," I said. "No, we don't," he replied. "Yes, you do," I said, laughing with Jean. She'd told me that he'd throw the cardboard away and she'd later pull it out for recycling but she couldn't break him of tossing them out.

It'll be great to see them again for another lovely, scrumptious prime rib. Broos would love it, too. Brian's a really good cook! And Jean is a wonderful person and friend.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Happy Christmas!

I'm having trouble typing. Mittens is firmly wedged between me and my laptop, chin resting on my left wrist. It's funny to see his poor little head bobbing up and down as I type, but that's the price he must pay for wanting to snuggle right now!

Today I'm finishing up some of my chores. Two big boxes left to haul out to the dumpster. I shove as much paper as I can into the recycle bin, then chuck the box into the trash. Shameful, I know, but the recycle bin just isn't big enough and I have failed to find a store that doesn't lock its recycle bins closed.

Boxes migrate from one room to the next as I reorganize closets into which I dumped stuff upon first moving in. Things that need to go to the office (I keep a ton of reference books at work) are stacked by the kitchen. Ye olde window seat of plastic shelves and leather pillows is resurrected in my dining room, providing a bench seat that's only slightly too high for the table.

Guess that's where I'll sit short people ;)

I'm kind of hoping to see Ron today, but he's been packing to move (coincidentally, not all that far from where I'm living now) and has also been entertaining some work-related guests that aren't leaving until after Boxing Day. Oh, well. If I don't see him today, I'll just have to eat the pistachio-studded fudge I was going to give him. Muahahaha!

May all your hopes and wishes come true for the season!

It's Beginning to Look...

...a lot like a home and not a cardboard box repository! Yay!

There are some boxes I can't lift, but that's what cherubs are for, right? And both are coming for a couple of days next week, wherein I shall put them to work. Muahahaha!

I like that our company closes for the last week of the year. It takes away a lot of that "but you took it off last year" stuff that I've seen happen in other places I've worked. Everyone's off, recharging themselves and that helps refresh the mind for the year ahead.

My goal for the day is to do a bit of grocery shopping. I want to make some cookies (hahaha, nothing like leaving things for the last minute) or chocolate loaf cake for next week. And, of course, I need cheese for fondue, too.

And so, off I go! The nearest Trader Joe's isn't as close as the ginormous Whole Foods, but I prefer to get staple items there. The roads may still be icy. The shoppers will be at their most desperate.

Wish me luck!

Girls' Night In

As Kevin returns tomorrow, last night was our official last girls' night in the O'Hara household. I have to go home tonight, lest I find that Mittens has pooped on my new bathroom rug in protest of something or other!

We've had a lovely handful of days, sitting together with cups of tea, surrounded by cats and the glorious clutter of craft projects in progress.

I love spending time in this house; it's full of love, friendship and laughter. And while Candyce thinks I have been doing her a favor by sleeping over, it's actually me that's benefiting! The aura of her home is so pervasive, I can't help but go about the rest of the year in a happy, hopeful and blessed mood.

May a little of her magic work its way through the internet and find all y'all, too.

It's Dead, Jim

As pre-arranged, I drove over to Candyce's house and we spent several hours talking and talking. Candyce is making some Yule wreaths and I'd brought along the latest in baby blankies.

One of the wreaths is destined for one of Candyce's "Rat Lady" friends, and I mentioned that I knew how to make yarn rats. We decided to head to the store to pick up some supplies and get some lunch.

"I'll drive," I said. So we hop into Old Paint, who refused to stay on. We sat there and tried again. We tried again. Finally, we got into Candyce's car and did our errands.

On the way back, we picked up a gallon of gas; perhaps Old Paint thought it was completely empty as it's parked on the hill of her garage at a pretty good angle. In went the gas. Old Paint clanked and protested and stubbornly died each time I managed to get it turned over.

Fucking Old Paint =(

The litmus test for getting a new car is generally if you're spending more per month to fix the thing than a car loan. So let's see...in the past three months, I've put in a new alternator and battery; had its headlight re-re-re-fixed (not that that's helped; it re-re-re-re-broke again); got it completely serviced for my road trip and now this. I think it's going to cost me more to fix whatever ails this bastard than its going to be worth.

Stupid, freaking fracking gol darn stupid cars. When I called USAA's roadside assistance program to ask about getting someone to tow it, the rep asked what year, make and model I have.

"It's a 2001...piece of junk," I replied. Both she and Candyce started giggling. So at least I haven't lost my sense of humor about this!

I spent the night at Candyce's and tomorrow, USAA will have my car towed to the nearest mechanic. That's when I get to decide if it's truly curtains or what, but I am leaning towards killing Old Paint now before he dies somewhere really inconvenient.

At least the yarn rats are coming along okay. Sigh.

Not Necessarily a Blog Post

We are in a Super 8 motel in Santa Nella, Mittens (curled up on my left arm) and Melody (exploring) and me. A real post once I have blazing fast internet.

Kiev was beautiful. Photos later, too. It snowed!

Things I'll Miss

Steak night!

In-N-Out burgers!

Chris reading Shakespeare; he's studying Measure for Measure and reads quietly to himself, interjecting occasionally in modern English for my edification: "He's hot for her." "He wants to bone her." "Bitch got called out on it!" and "Man, what a douche!"

Yeah. I'll miss some things about San Diego. How else would I learn so much about the Bard's plays? :)

Random Bits

Chris napping with Mittens. So cute!

Fortunately, my laptop has a built-in camera, so I was able to take a photo without having to get out of the recliner and ruin the moment. Yay, laptops with cameras!

The guys and gals in our facilities department at work are so nice. Perhaps it's related to the beer Barb and I bought for them that day earlier this year when they had to move a whole building's worth of peeps without the outside contractors that were supposed to help them. In any event, the other day I emailed them to ask if they had spare boxes I could have. Sure, they replied, stop on by.

Then yesterday morning, I arrived at work to find they had piled all kinds of little empty boxes by my desk for me! How cool is that?

Ms. Cuppycake and Amanda took over Scott's house for a barbecue today, but I decided to stay home and fret over my worldly possessions instead. I'm going out later tonight, though, with Mr. Zim to see Labyrinth. It's playing in La Jolla at a midnight showing. We plan to follow up the movie with a visit to Brians' to have pancakes. And maybe see Chris. Muahahaha!

I hope I can stay awake for all this excitement!

Nightlife

I went to dive bars 2 (two) nights in a row this week!

Thursday, I was forced to attend a Yelp "Thirsty Thursday" event as Matt promised to do unspeakable things to my desk if I didn't go. It was an okay function, but as I didn't know anyone but Matt, I didn't really enjoy myself. Some folks have such an easy time of chatting to people they don't know about stuff that doesn't matter...I'm not one of those folks. I don't have the gift of small talk.

On the bright side, my desk is safe. For now.

Last night, Tami (who got my IM via Cat...I love how the internet is all connected that way...even Nick went, although when we had lunch earlier that day I had no idea I'd be going, too) invited me to go to Carriage House for karaoke. I followed Junior there (and a good thing, too, as I'm not sure I'd have found the place on my own) and had a great time spectating the singers.

The difference between the two events is just that last night, I knew quite a few of the folks who were going to be there and could talk with various folks over the course of the evening. Thursday night, I really struggled with overcoming my shyness to talk to a couple of people sitting nearby. At a karaoke bar, you can always talk about how the singer is doing, the song choices, etc... so there are built-in conversation opportunities. Not so much in a bar with nothing but drinking.

And while the Yelpers were all very friendly folks, I don't have anything in common with them, other than we all write little reviews on Yelp. For example, with FlyerTalk events, you know everyone travels so you can talk airlines, locations, airports. I've never had trouble chatting with someone from FT. On the other hand, Yelp reviews cover everthing from doctors to parks to restaurants. In the scheme of things, that's not enough commonality for me to start a conversation.

It's the yin and yan of life for me. I want to meet people, but I don't want to actually talk to any of them.

A Very Bad Parody

Driving home after a steak dinner, part of a song suddenly popped into my head...for no good reason...but it seemed funny at the time and I want to share it before it stops amusing me. It has no basis in reality. Everyone I cyb0r still texts me. ;)

To the tune of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Neil Diamond. Sorry, Neil!

You don't send me IMs.
You don't send me email.
You hardly respond to my calls anymore
When I phone you at home
Or at work every day

I remember when...
You couldn't wait to text me
Used to hate to leave me
Now after cyb0ring late at night
When it's good for you, babe
And you're feeling all right
Well, you just turn your PC off
Without typing "G'nite"

And you don't text my cell phone anymore.

I Hate Tequila

Margaritas are nice; tequila shots are not.

Scott had a BBQ/birthday party last night at his place. It was roastingly, broilingly hot in the house. We clustered by open windows and beneath ceiling fans. We drank refreshing chilled beverages.

And as you can see in the photo, I now have another owl! Cat had bought a pair of stuffed animals and gave one to me! Yay!

Early on, Scott mentioned that he had bought some very expensive tequila because he loved my reaction to the last party I attended at his house wherein tequila shots were consumed and I commented how vile they were.

"I got us the good stuff this time!" Scott crowed. He had a gallon jug of Patron, just waiting for the kill. He lulled me into a false sense of security by allowing a couple of hours to pass between the ceremonial viewing of the jug and the arrival of the enormous red plastic Chalice of Doom.

He swears it was only one shot. To me, it appeared that there was much, much more. I believe he had someone video the drinking thereof...and it was just as awful in its more expensive form as it was in whatever cheaper version we had last time.

Later, I lounged about hoping desperately to not pass out. Emily commented, "You're quite flushed!" and when I mentioned that part of it was that I'm Asian, she knew exactly which gene I was missing to cause such a reaction. She has a degree in biological mishaps, if I remember correctly.

Clearly, I was suffering from such a mishap. Noel graciously brought me a hot dog. Emily and Junior brought me iced water. Thankfully, I neither passed out nor regurgitated anything. In sympathy, Noel let me run my fingers through his hair :) He has such lovely hair AND currently has an almost velvet scalp thing going near the nape of his neck. I adore velvet scalp and encouraged Emily to fondle Noel's hair, too.

We'd have fondled Junior's scalp, but it was so hot that he was uncomfortably sweaty, which makes the experience less pleasurable. As an expert in velvet scalp, I know these things! :)

In this languorous mood, I played my first game of Guitar Hero. This is very obviously a game one needs to play alone at home for many hours before attempting to do so in public. Fun, but needless to say, I was not very good at it.

I hope Scott recovers from the burns he sustained when a hot pan seared right through the oven mitt to his hand. If he'd burnt himself after the tequila shots, though, I might not have had so much sympathy for the devil!

Twenty-one

Chris turns twenty-one today. I won't be seeing him until tonight, when Our Sainted Mother and I will go over to eat where he's working.

Possibly not the birthday celebration he's been hoping for, but there you have it. I hope he's sleeping in today.

I meant to go out last night with Cat, Junior and Adam to have dinner and Extraordinary Desserts, but alas...spending the day doing laundry for OSM, plus shopping and bill paying left me less-than-social by the time evening rolled around.

What is so draining to me is how repetitive the day is. I'm not sure how often we discussed having dinner where we could see Chris, or what day Cyd starts school or what she wanted to buy at the grocery store. It's difficult to treat each duplicate conversation as the first time you've had it.

We spent the time in between our tasks putting together jigsaw puzzles. We finished one Saturday morning and started a new on Saturday afternoon. OSM has always done puzzles and I enjoy them as well. I can't do them at my place as puzzle pieces = cat toys. Before I had cats, I used to do puzzles with the boys.

Someday, Chris will have a little cherub turn twenty-one and I hope Chris will still hang out with his feeble-minded mother. He says he will.

The Woman in Me

Earlier this week, the woman in me bought a new PS2. Yesterday, she followed up with a trip to Kiev.

WTH!?

I'm going for a number reasons: I've never been there before; it has awesome architecture; it gets me 14,400 miles; and it was relatively inexpensive. Relative to say, Tokyo or Rome in the same time frame.

The trip won't be very long, only three days on the ground, but I want to do something completely different. Traveling alone, I find, often meets that need for me. In a way, it's easier than traveling with some one as I like to plan in advance and be prepared for all sorts of events. When you're with someone else, you need to take their abilities and interests in mind.

It may not be an easy trip (like, I don't speak any Ukranian or Russian), but it will be interesting. And that's what life should be: interesting!

Non parlo Italiano...

...except in my car. :(

I am nearing the end of CD number 2, currently mumbling prepositions. Per, da, di...it's so musical, like a song! Per, da, di! Per, di, da! Life goes on...la!

One thing I'm somewhat struggling with is making my tongue curl up naturally around the R sound. It's like purring...I know how it works, but sometimes it doesn't come out that way. My current favorite word to say is scrivere. Mmm...scrivere, baby. That's followed closely by comprendere. But for the life of me, parlare sounds as though my mouth is full of marbles, and not in a good way.

Mr. Falconeer, my Italian friend, blogs in Italian. I struggled in vain to get through a post, then had to let Google translator butcher the hell out of it. On the bright side, I have some idea what he's up to. On the other hand, even Google was stumped by his casual, colloquial style.

Which is a good thing, when you think on it. After all, none of us speak English like a textbook, so reading Italian as someone who speaks Italian would write it should be a good exercise for my brain.

Per, da, di!

Baby Blanket A' Go-Go!

Well, the pattern from the corset doesn't translate well into a baby blanket. I think it's too subtle, even across multiple repetitions. Also tried my hand at bobbles, but that would be annoying for an entire blanket :)

Unless I find something I like better, I'll do the Child's Play blanket in feather and fan, too. It is a beautiful, simple pattern.

My knitting will come with me, of course. I have to show Heidi, with whom I'm having dinner tomorrow night. Heidi is the attorney I used to work with in Seattle and she also knits so she'll appreciate the blanket's progress.

I TiVo'd the Concert for Diana and have been listening to it while I knit and putter around today. Some of the artists, I must admit, I've only known previously by name and not by voice, so it's cool to actually hear them. Joss Stone can belt out a tune, that's for sure! And I'm sorry I missed the first coming of Take That. :)

Must finish packing and cuddling with Mittens. I'm always sad to leave him for a week. He's so cute.

Whoopsie, Gryph! They're Size 6!

Now that I'm home with my knitting, I see that I had misremembered the needle size. I would have used size 7 but happened to already have the circular 6.

At 182 stitches, it's 44 inches wide and would be more when blocked (which I might not do as it's not curling up due to its border). With 2.5 skeins in, it's 15 inches. Your estimate of 5 skeins needed is great, even with size 7 needles.

I've been watching episodes of Knitty Gritty at night to keep me company as I knit. While some of it is kind of hokey-sounding, it's interesting to see different stitches and patterns explained.

One episode showed a corset top, which I might try sometime. The main thing I liked was the lace pattern on its top. It looked so cool, I may try to use that for the Child's Play baby blanket instead of the feather and fan again.