Tsss. Long day, plenty of ow in the back after, well doing too much. And now writing blog entries while watching Andromeda and Tyr in the nipple shirt. Could be worse. But ow. Rest of the day will involve a lot of lying around. :P
We, uh. Went and paid the car payment, then went to Sears where I told them to remove the astigmatism correction from my new glasses. This caused them to take the glasses away, check them, come back, tell me that there was nothing wrong with the glasses, and suggest that perhaps I hadn't tried hard enough to wear them.
I explained, without a great deal of patience, that the glasses made me dizzy if I looked at anything further than 18 inches away from my face or moved my head. The woman said, "How long did you try wearing them for?" I said, "Several hours. I stopped wearing them after I figured out they made me sick." She said, "So would you say you ... wow, nipple shirt. No, she didn't say that. She said, "So would you say that you tried wearing them for a week?"
o.O
I sais, "No, I haven't even had them that long." Again without a great deal of patience, I explained that I was not _going_ to wear glasses that made me dizzy and rendered me unable to see.
The woman pretty clearly thought I was being unreasonable.
Why in hell would I wear glasses that made me dizzy? My world is not like their world, apparently. Anyway, after a certain amount of go-around on this, she rewrote the prescription to remove the astigmatism correction -- she said it was only .25 and that I shouldn't really even be able to notice it, while she was trying to talk me into continuing to wear the glasses the way they were -- and they said they'd call when they were fixed.
So now I'm going to have to wake another two weeks while they fix those, and then I have to see if the -.75 prescription is strong enough in the glasses. It wasn't in the contacts.
:P
Then Ted dropped me off at Blaine's for a few minutes while he went to the comic ship, and I poked around and looked at sculpture stuff, but they had no plastic skeletons, so I didn't buy anything then. We drove around and looked at a copule of houses, then we came home and I lay down for a few minutes and we had lunch and then went back out, looked at some more houses, went to another hobby shop, had no luck there, went back to Blaine's, I bought some air-drying clay and some wire and wire mesh and sculpting tools, aaaaaand then we went to Title Wave, where I didn't buy any books on how to do sculpture, but I did look at several and mostly determined that I was just gonna have to figure it out by myself.
Ted, however, found a copy of Golden Witchbreed, which he's been looking for for months, maybe longer. So that's good! :)
I've suddenly got this interesting idea to try doing a sculpture. Specifically, a Shi'ar mining suit Rogue sculpture. It would make *such* a kick-ass sculpture -- not that I have the slightest idea how to go about it! I think I'll try, though. Ehehehe. :) Eheheheh!
My back's feeling better. Still not well, but I'm moving a lot more easily. Standing and sitting for long periods of time is still pretty exhausting, but, well. It's a whole lot better than it was. I'd really like to be able to go to the state fair this weekend. I guess we'll see.
Did you know that the reason cheap candles burn much faster than expensive candles is because cheap candles have much more air worked into the wax, and so it takes noticeably less time for the wax to melt away?
Well, now you do. :)
Yesterday, I got sucked into reading Making Light, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden's blog. In the midst of this blog, I found this entry, which, prompted by Meryl Yourish's very fine question, "What kind of dates would the various superheroes be?" asked:
If there's a female comics fan out there who's never once thought about this, would she please raise her hand?
I certainly am not one who would be raising her hand in answer to this question.
Ms. Nielsen-Hayden also made a very fine point about Wolverine:
There's got to be another reason why he's had more girlfriends than anyone besides Iron Man. Ever consider what that healing factor means to his recovery time? On the other hand, it could just be that he knows how to dance.
I'm very glad to know I'm not the only person who thinks this way.
And now, spurred on by these two fine ladies, I must add my own two cents to the mix. Marvel only; I don't read enough DC to have an opinion. Except on Jonn-Jonn. I'd date him. And Batman. Who *wouldn't* date Batman?
Gambit: How could any self-respecting Marvel comics fan overlook Gambit? He might not be the greatest person in the world to have a /relationship/ with, but *damn*, sister. It'd be fun while it lasted. Two, um, thumbs, up.
I'm with Ms. H-N on the matter of Hank McCoy: the only superhero who talks like the people I normally hang out with. He's kind and polite. He pays a lot of attention to his girlfriends. He's also cheerful, inventive, energetic, inquisitive, and a techie. He's an actual lasting-relationship sorta guy. Plus, who can resist blue furry cuddliness? A definite two thumbs up.
Magneto: The guy's sexy. He's a jerk, but he's sexy. (Not so much the Ian McKellan version, although Mr. McKellan's got his own kind of appeal.) The long-term potential of him squishing my brain like a grape 'cause I'm not a mutant, though, makes him a one-thumbs-up kinda guy, instead of two.
Professor X & Sabretooth: I gotta disagree with Ms. Yourish on these two. The Prof is sexy and Sabes makes me drool, which probably says all kinds of frightening things about me, but there you have it. Sabes has the whole squishing-the-brain problem, of course -- well, okay, it'd be more like eating your face off -- which means that for actual *dating* potential, he probably gets two thumbs down (unless we're talking the AoA Sabretooth; do I get to pick and choose my multiverse? a big two thumbs up for AoA Sabes), but Chuck gets two thumbs up.
Iceman: Bobby Drake is practically a Normal Guy, except the ice thing. He's funny, he's goofy, he's cute, he's clever enough to crack smart-ass jokes; two thumbs up.
Mr. Sinister: Sexy but with alarming tendencies to steal people's genetic material and make clones. Two thumbs down.
Colossus: Sensitive artist guy. Big. Strong. Handsome. A little stuck on Kitty Pryde, but who can blame him? Unfortunately, dead. Two thumbs down.
Bishop: Surly. And they cut his hair (okay, that was years ago, but there are important things in life, dammit!). However, he has a magnificent nose. Therefore: two thumbs up.
*looks over this list* Hm. Judging from the list, I'm pretty easy when it comes to superheroes. Hee hee hee. *laugh* :)
Icky glasses. They make everything bendy. I will try them another day or so and see if they stop doing this. Sarah says it takes a while to get used to glasses that correct astigmatisms. I never had any astigmatisms /before/ this doctor. :P
AAAAAH LUCY WAS *SO* *CUTE* last night!
I was getting ready for bed, and I'm supposed to do these exercises for my back, so I was standing there in the dark next to the bed doing them, and suddenly two little cat feet reeaaaaaached up to my ribs, and she headbutted me and streeeeeetched!
So I did what any normal, red-blooded, cat-liking person would do. I went right to bed and let her curl up on my ribs. :)
And then I couldn't keep her on my ribs 'cause of my back so I rearranged significantly and she stayed right with me. She was still sleeping against me when I went to sleep.
I am loved!
(I am also wearing my 'sucker!' hat, but that's okay!)
Now she's curled up on my knees. Nice kitty. *beam*
Can you say 'overdid it'? We went to pick up my new glasses and switch out my not-strong-enough contacts for the ones that actually work. Don't know that I like the prescription on the new glasses, but they told me to try them out for a few days. *dubious look* Then we went to the comic shop, where there were no comics, so instead I blew most of my allowance on the Rogue bust I've been wanting, and Ted got some more HeroClix. He's awfully addicted. :)
Then we went to dinner, and that was really the mistake. Too much sitting around. Very tired Kit, very achy back.
Gonna go take my contacts out and try the new glasses for a while. They're very *cute*, anyway!
Mumble. I seem to be good for maybe ten, fifteen minutes of sitting up/working, and then I have to lie down again. This isn't exactly what I'd call ideal. I mean, okay, it's better than it /was/, but ngrhg!
Oh, for heaven's sake. *snort* We've got another site redesign coming up, and it was supposed to start two weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything but vague noises about it. So I just asked about it; Tom said that this and that were being worked on, there'd be specs at the end of the day. I'm like, "Okay, you realize we're not going to have an end of September launch, with these delays?"
He says, "I realize it now!"
*boggle* We've been through this kind of thing enough times that I would think product management would *grasp* the whole timeline issue. Especially since I told them right at the very beginning of this project that if there was any slip in the schedule, it would mean the launch date would have to be pushed out.
What is it, they think I'm *kidding*? *boggle*
Welcome to another edition of the Daily Pain Report.
Today's not so bad, actually. Sitting's still making me pretty tired, but I left the chiro pain-free, at least temporarily. It's another gorgeous day. I might try taking a little tiny walk later. But right now, I have to go get at least a little work done.
Ok, that basically sucked. I went downstairs to get some actual work done for a few minutes -- 45 minutes or so? Maybe not that long -- and my back really thought poorly of sitting for that many minutes in a row. Sigh.
Had an idea for a screenplay, last night. 'course, I gotta finish MD first. And rewrite US. And possibly try to write a YA novel for that contest Sarah mentioned.
But no pressure, y'know? No pressure....
The auld back is doing quite a lot better today. Not well, and being up and moving around for more than a few minutes wears me out pretty fast, but I'm doing better. I slept without the back brace last night and that was MUCH nicer. Lucy came and slept on my ribs this morning, and it didn't hurt. Yay! Now she's sleeping on the pillows/blankets I have set up for a knee rest (I'm supposed to have my knees over a pillow or something so my lower back doesn't get flattened out in horrible ways). Fortunately, she's not a very *big* cat, so there's still room for my knees.
Sitting up still hurts, sadly.
It's an unbelievably gorgeous day. I must get out of the house somehow, tonight. I'm very tired of these four walls. :P
There's an essay sort of thing regarding writing coming up any moment now, except not right now.
Curse Garrett's eyes. He introduced me to this blogrolling.com, which is a nifty little tool that allows a person to save links into a navbar with a click or two. So I can get sucked into more random blogs and sites more easily. *mumble*
"Almost 150 years before the Internet, the letters column of Robert Merry's Museum shaped its subscribers into a virtual community. Flame wars, gender-swapping -- you name it, they did it. Illustrated; with links to pieces at this site."
Boy, do I know how to have fun. I'm going to try to get my laptop onto work's VPN so I can, well, work. Although, crap, I'll have to find fsecuresh again. This *sucks*.
Wore myself out this morning. Went to the chiro, then went with Mom to see if we could find me one of those ergonomically correct backless chairs where you put your butt on one slant and your knees on another slant and it's supposed to be very good for you. After two minutes in the store I needed to go lie down. :(
So now I'm lying down. Again. I'm going to call in to my 12:30 meeting, and try to work for a while after that, but I have no idea if my back's going to tolerate that.
This *sucks*.
I need to eat something. :P
I stretch; my back spasms. I lie still; my back spasms. I stand up; my back spasms.
And don't even talk to me about sneezing.
And this is *better* than it was. Getting up, dressing, showering, is very wearying. I still haven't managed to get my socks on yet. The poor damned dog is in her kennel because I can't WALK her, and she's not very happy about that. Neither am I.
I'm also incredibly hungry, but if I go into the kitchen she'll see me and I'll feel guilty.
I didn't get up until eleven. The really pathetic thing is this doesn't even make me feel like a slug, since all I can do is lie around anyway.
Lucy came and slept on me this morning. Unfortunately, her favorite place to sleep on me is on my ribs when I'm lying on my side, and that pushes my back around just enough that it hurts. I tried to convince her to sleep on my thigh instead. No go. After several negotiations, I squished her up against my chest like she was a pillow and she was pretty content with that until I rolled over onto my back and she got to sleep *on* my chest, which made her very happy.
I had many strange dreams this morning, some of which were superhero dreams and some of which involved me staying in a hotel room of some sort with Peggy Prentice, whom I went to high school with and who didn't like me. I had to walk the cats, in this dream. I was trying to put the cats into a backpack. It was easy to get *one* cat into the backpack (Zilli, specifically), but getting *two* cats into the backpack was, well, less easy. And then carrying a backpack full of squirming cat... it was a very odd dream.
Ted's just now back from the store, where he bought ALL the food. We were amazingly out of food.
Did I mention I managed to put my own socks on this (yesterday) morning? Well, yesterday afternoon. Still. I did.
The photos page is actually up. not with captions on the photos, but up. Nearly 50 megs worth of photos, ai. 750 or something of them. Sheesh. And that's not counting the cruise stuff; I haven't decided if I'm putting that up in the gallery stuff or not.
And a prototype Kitsnaps is also up.
Bed now. Night.
I'm in the process of updating my photos page to a pre-built image gallery setup which requires much less work on my part. Consequently, for a few days it's pretty likely that the photos pages are going to be goofy, and nothing will be where it used to be when I'm done. I'll probably be putting everything back up, so it'll be findable, eventually. In the unlikely event that you desperately need to know where a photo is, ask me. :)
Man, I'm in a piss-poor mood today. I spent an hour doing things this morning-- things like getting up, showering, eating -- and after an hour's exertion my back was screaming at me.
I cannot put my own socks on.
I'm on my back again for the fourth day in a row. This is just ... depressing. And my feet are cold. *sigh*
Maybe I'll go try to figure out a mySQL database, or something. :P
JuneauPhotos.com is a very nifty site. It makes me want to do something similar for around here. Garrett suggested kitsnaps.com, which makes me laugh. :)
I don't know how to set up a database to handle it, though. That's the only problem. And I don't know if I'm clever enough, or perhaps more accurately, dedicated enough, to figure it out. Even if I've got mySQL on this hosting service... maybe I should read a book. Or read the web. Heh. :P
Ehehehehe. Ted is totally addicted to HeroClix. Bret, the guy at the comic shop, said he'd save out ten or something unique HeroClix figurines for a good price, and Ted was kind of doing the I'm-so-cute-and-hopeful dance about buying them, but I hadn't said we could afford it. So sneaky sneaky me sent Shaun out to buy them while Ted was at work this morning, and I got him a Sentinal, too. The Sentinals are pretty cool. And Ted was very surprised. Ehehehehe. :)
Flat on my back for a third day in a row. I'm in much less pain today, which is a very nice thing indeed, but it still hurts to, oh, SIT UP.
The fucking dog just shit in the kitchen. Again. I'm at a loss as to what to do. Oh, and? Cleaning up after the dog when you've got a bad back? Really sucks a lot.
new chapters posted, for my test readers. normally i'd not post this publically, but normally i'd have access to my regular email.
Man, I'm wiped out.
Went to the chiro again today. I'm on bedrest again today. Lying around on my back. On an ice pack. Very cold.
I'm better today, which is to say I am no longer in excrutiating pain, but merely mind-boggling pain. Oh yeah, I'm reminded, I wrote a haiku while lying around in the chiro's office this morning.
Damn, I can't remember it. You're probably all relieved.
*helpless painful giggles* the wretched cats have been ignoring my bed-ridden self. Shaun just put Zilli down beside me. Zilli promptly climbed onto my chest so I couldn't see the computer screen. *giggles*
pain wearing me out
slow luxurious spasms
visit the chiro
hah, i remembered. :)
more organized this morning. i emailed work and checked my email and got MD onto disk so I could work on it today if I wanted to. I think I'll try to do that.
I wonder if I have an FTP program on this computer. I don't think I do.
ARGH. People keep drooling over the new X trailer. I don't like watching trailers online. ARGH!
if anybody wants to email me for the next day or two, please email me at mizkit@hotmail.com, rather than my usual address. thanks.
The visit to the chiro this morning -- I successfully made an appointment -- was excrutiatingly painful. My back is as bad right now as it was in May when I went in, all because I went for a stupid little 2 minute run at the end of July. I literally couldn't stand when he got done with me. Ted had to help me in and out of the car, and upstairs, and to lie down on the couch, where I am assigned to at least a day's bedrest. I am to keep weight off my tailbone, which means lying down, not sitting, so I can't work. I can't do much of goddamned anything. I can't even check my /email/; my laptop, which Ted just went out, bought ethernet cable for, and hooked up to the cable modem, hasn't got Outlook on it, and I don't know how to set Netscape or IE up to check it otherwise.
Ted, in fact, went out twice and bought ethernet cable. The first time, the very very *VERY* bad puppy chewed through the cable in about ten minutes. :(
Ted is taking very good care of me. Although after he managed to get me upstairs and onto the couch, he was speaking Quite Loudly and Intently while he was telling me what he was going to do, and I had to tell him he didn't have to talk so loudly, that my *ears* were fine. *chortle* It was pretty funny. Poor Ted. All worried.
This *sucks*, let me tell you. My back's a little better now than it was when we got home at 11:15, but sitting or standing -- standing especially -- requires a whole hell of a lot of concentration, and the first time I tried, I couldn't do it at all. I had to have Ted help me off the couch. I have never hurt so badly in my life. Um, except in May on the day that was as bad as this one, when getting out of bed made me almost throw up.
There's bread baking, and it smells very good. I'm quite hungry, but I want bread, not grapes, which are what I have. Glarg! Sour grape! glarg!
Ok, I'm going to post this and see if I can find another position to lie in that will permit me to type. Tired of lying on my back. *sigh* :P
Oooh, poor zonked-out puppy. We brought her in to get fixed today. She's sooooo groggy and a little bit sick. Poor puppy. Ted's a bit traumatized. (Ted's very gentle-hearted.) Poor puppy. No food or water worth speaking of tonight, a little bit tomorrow, try not to do much stairs. Poor Chanti.
Called the chiro to see if I could get an appointment tomorrow instead of waiting til Friday. My back hurts more than it has in months. This sucks a whole big lot. I want to stop being broken. :(
There are a bunch of shriekingly funny Moonlighting quotes at IMDB. God, that was a funny show. Until it, to quote Henry, it jumped the shark when Maddie and David slept together in third season and the entire show imploded.
None-the-less, it was a *very* funny show. :)
Ow. My stupid back hurts a lot. I have a spasming muscle in my middle back and my lower back just plain aches. this is incredibly aggravating. :( Going to the gym tonight to get a pool pass. Maybe swimming will help some. :(
Lil' guys vs. Starbucks in wireless shootout. I mention it 'cause Adam Shand is a friend of mine. Gooooooo, Adam!
Um! Oh. Other early-morning news, we brought Chantico to the SPCA to be fixed and on the way over she puked in the car. Glah. It was only a very little inoffensive puke, because she had nothing at all in her system, but glah anyway.
You *really* didn't want to know that, did you?
Changing the kitty litter now, and then I have to call the hotel in Denver for reservations. Don't let me forget!
*howls of laughter* Chantico's been bwuffing at the door all night. We just realized she's seeing her own reflection and getting all freaked out. *LAUGH*
Hmph. Chantico won't actually stay down here in the office where I'm working so I can keep an eye on her. She's lying mournfully in the foyer, staring down the hall (but not at me, because I'm out of her line of sight) in a guilt-inducing fashion.
Well, she was until I went to take a picture of her, of course. :)
Oh! Emily called yesterday. She's made it safely to Kotlik, the kitten and the dog (who belongs to Jen with whom she is rooming) are getting along okay, she and Jen are getting along swimmingly, the new school they've built in Kotlik (which won't open until January) is the best laid-out and designed school she's ever seen, the old school which she's currently in is a hodgepodge and a mess but interesting, she has the nicest duplex in the village and there was a potluck going on yesterday afternoon that she was going to. Not to welcome her, but to say goodbye to the missionary lady who had been in Kotlik for *fifty years* and who was retiring. Emily was making the rice krispie treats to bring to the potluck. Ah, traditional village fare. :)
Did I mention we went to The Importance of Being Ernest on Saturday? It was delightful. Hm. That may be the sum total of what I have to say this morning. :)
No, that's not entirely true. A little update for my test readers, too: I have no idea how much I've written. I mean, I know how many words and chapters (16.5K, 8.5), but it's all tremendously out of order and I'm not sure how much more needs to be written before I get it to a point where it becomes one cohesive unit that I can release into the wilds. Four chapters, I think (plus the other half chapter I need to finish). I'll write tonight and probably tomorrow, and hopefully on Wednesday have a massive chunk for them what test-reads for me.
I shoulda written yesterday, perhaps, but man, it was a nice day off. :)
Off to the chiro!
I think today's a Zero Writing Day. I might be wrong and end up writing later, but it was very lovely outside today and I didn't want to spend it inside, so Ted and I went out and did stuff and that was much more emotionally satisfying than sitting indoors during the sunshine would've been.
I wrote 16,500 words in the last 3 days, anyway. That's pretty good.
Sarah saw the funniest thing.
Sarah says "It was a 'you know you're a Gambit fan when' sort of thing"
Sarah says "And one of the lines was"
Sarah | ... you put your Rogue figurine in the freezer and told her to get herself out!
*howls of laughter* I am SO tempted to go put a Rogue figurine in the freezer now. *HOWLS*
I'm desperately confused about what day of the week it is. I'm convinced it's Saturday. We just dropped by the comic shop so Ted could get more Hero Clix (Ted is addicted!) and Amy, who is a friend of mine who works there (I met her while I was working there) was there, and I was terribly bewildered, because Amy doesn't work weekends.
After a minute I realized it wasn't a weekend. o.O
This morning, I went to the chiropractor again, because my back had been hurting all week, and I finally kind of went 'y'know, this is the kind of low-grade pain that I put up with for the last year, except when it was worse than this. This sucks. I'm not doing that again.' So I went. And I have officially Horked Up My Back Again. God damn it. As far as I can tell, I must've screwed it up with that two minutes of running three weeks ago or whatever it was. I'm *really* unhappy about that.
The doctor suggests I walk and swim rather than run and bike.
Sigh.
So tomorrow I'm gonna go over to the University again and renew my pool membership, and I'm going to /have/ to start getting up and going to swim and to the gym, because I really hate being in pain. *growl*
This morning, I also got my hairs trimmed in a fashion that I'm very pleased with, although it's sort of hard to describe how it's different than it was before. The very back is shaved and trimmed all nice and tidy so it's all one length all around now, mostly.
It's taken me over an hour to get this much written. Small brain. Also, I've been editing a whole bunch of cat photos, of which this and this are my favorites.
Emily's version of what happened with that photo: Lucy and Zilli were in the kitten-sized cat carrier. Toby climbed in. Lucy was Having None Of That. Lucy climbed out. Lucy *then* realized that she was now the Only Cat Not In The Carrier. Lucy was also having none of *that*! Lucy climbed back in, over both Zilli and Toby, squishing them around until she mashed herself into the back of the tiny carrier, where she was then Content.
And one gratuitous puppy shot.
Wordcount as of about 5:30: 5100. Chapters written: 2.75, or thereabouts. Go me. :)
Oop, dinner. bai bai.
Day 1 accomplished. 3 chapters, approximately 8700 words. Go me. :)
Ok, that was a whole hell of a lot of writing, wow. I think I wrote for... let's see. 2. 5. 2.5. About 9 and a half hours today. Wow. Some of that wasn't straight writing, obviously (although the last 2.5 hours pretty much *was* straight writing, go *me*!) But I probably spent a good seven or so hours actually *writing*. Wow. Pretty intense, man.
Weird thing is that my brain's not even tired. Well, not yet. At the end of the weekend, I anticipate it being tired. :) OTOH, if I manage to write 8700 words a day, I'll have written close to 35K words in 4 days, which I think would be pretty worth being tired over. :)
I've written about 5300 words today, and finished 2 chapters. Going to go upstairs and write another one in a few minutes here. Aiming for 3 chapters today. um. should go write now. yah. vroom.
Ok, well, the computer room, at least, is mostly clean. Having accomplished that much, now I'm going to get offline and go do some RL stuff and I won't be around much for the next several days, because I have to do Lots Of Writing. Wish me luck!
I'm off! heheh!
Damn Sarah's eyes. She mentioned this writing contest today and so maybe when I'm done writing MD I'll try to fling myself into writing a YA novel. I'd had this story I was going to tell that I was going to call Right Angles to Fairyland, but I've just suddenly renamed it to Leader Green. I had the beginnings of an epiphany about it, but I must not epiphanize more until MD is done. Dammit.
Would someone like to support me in my writing habit so that I can work only part-time (or better yet not at all) and instead write? Please?
Shoop! Emily is off to Kotlik! Good luck to her! A Grand Adventure! Eee! And *I* have accomplished 2 of the 6 things I've set out to do today. Go me. There's bread being made and Chanti has an appointment to be fixed next Tuesday. Now I have to go finish some work stuff so I can TAKE THE REST OF THE WEEK OFF. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Chantico's mostly a good dog. And this morning when we came in from going out for her walk, she ran right into the kitchen and lay down, 'cause that's the morning routine. And she stayed there while I got her food and got the cats food and got her a treat. Good puppy.
I kind of wonder where Emily and Ted are. Ted I wonder less about. emily was reputedly going to go find a MailBoxes Etc this morning to dump her stuff on, but I kind of expected her to be back by now, since she's supposed to be at the airport in 20 minutes. Well. I shan't worry; I'm sure all things will work out.
Chanti may be a good dog, but Zilli is a *dumb* cat. He just ate himself sick. He does this with a fair degree of regularity. Dumb, *dumb* cat.
Thinks To Do Today:
1. make bread
2. call the spca
3. vacuum
4. dust
5. pick up all the crap that's lying around
6. go biking
One of the useful things about knowing actual scientists is that they can tell you if other actual scientists are going to laugh at your science in your ... boy, I forgot I was posting this. In your SF novel. Anyway.
On other topics, Garrett has some strange links to some strange things called SoulBonders, which, as far as I can tell, are writers desperately in need of justification for having voices in their heads. I have a very hard time grokking the need for justification. Perhaps this is one of the inevitable problems of being the center of the universe. :)
Chantico has taken to crapping on the kitchen floor again. I don't know why. She's now relegated to her kennel again unless somebody's actively watching her. :(
Oh, I remember what I was going to be bitter about. I seem to have asthma. I find this to be incredibly distressing. It's clearly allergy-induced asthma, because I only get wheezy in May and June when whatever it is that triggers my hay fever is around -- and right now, because, I theorize, there are three cats in the house. :P I actually went and looked up how asthma works (on the newly redesigned ahealthyme.com, go me) because I had what seemed very much like an asthma attack yesterday morning. I yawned deeply and my breathing passage constricted and I became nauseated and had to curl up on my side and cough and breathe very carefully for several minutes. Then I took some Allegra, which made the problem go away.
I do not want to have asthma. I do not approve of having athma; it offends me. It apparently strikes me as a weakness to be excised from the system.
Anyway, I have a theory it's weight related. Another very fine reason to lose five more pounds this month. :}
Went to Triple X last night. Pretty good, in a silly explosions movie sort of way. Vin Diesel's ... really ... got a great voice. o.O I mean, I donno. He's not exactly attractive, but he's kinda cute anyway. :) Anyway, it was a fun movie. :)
Uh. No brain. Should clean up the kitty crap *sigh* and then have breakfast. Yes. this is my plan.
Salat Shots.com has some truly magnificent aurora photography.
This morning at about 10 after 9, the phone rang, and Emily's friend Scott and I had an extremely weird conversation. I wasn't awake, and the phone is right next to the fan in the room, so not only was I not awake, but I was having a hard time hearing him, and I couldn't really remember for *sure* if Shanks was his last name anyway, and *he* didn't know who he was calling, but kept saying, "You called me twice yesterday," which made the whole thing even stranger. After three repetitions (the last of which I turned the fan off before), I deduced who he was, and said, "Oh! Scott! Hi! What can I do for you?"
And there was this pause, and he said, "Who is this?"
I said, "This is Catie! I didn't call you!" Pause. "Emily probably did."
Then *HE* went "Oh!" and apologized profusely for calling so early. I pointed out it wasn't *that* early, since we're only an hour behind, but he told me to go back to bed and said he'd call back much, much later. *laugh* After I got off the phone I deduced that probably Emily'd called yesterday and had not left a message but that his phone had recorded the number. So he had no idea he was calling Alaska, so he really didn't need to be apologizing for calling so early. *laugh* It was pretty funny. :)
I went to the eye doctor yesterday and, get this, ORDERED NEW GLASSES. Pretty cool, huh? My vision keeps improving. My left eye, which I think started out a -2.00 when I got glasses a long time ago (holy cow! twenty years ago!), has improved to a -.75, which is a full two steps better than it was last year -- which was a full two steps better than it was the time before /that/ when I'd had an eye exam. My right eye's improved to a -2.5, which is the 2nd time i've been diagnosed with that -- it used to be a -2.75, and might've been worse than that, originally.
I figure if I keep it up at this rate, by the time I'm forty, I'll have perfect vision. :)
Ok, so thus far today I've gotten up at 5:40am, picked a gallon of raspberries (Dad and Emily also each picked a gallon of raspberries; we have ALL the raspberries!), come home, eaten, walked the dog, showered, yelled at the kitten, and now I'm going to go get my eyes checked and order some new contacts and go to the library to see if I can delve into MD again.
Vroom!
I have the very *silliest* friends:
Kit . o O ( Manifest Destiny by C.E. Murphy. ehehehehehe. ahem. o.o )
Little My snerks. That'd make a good autobiography title.
Garrett says "Sounds more like Manuscript Destiny to me."
Little My says "Well, if it were political writing it could be Manifesto Destiny."
Garrett says "If it were pop music it'd be Manifest Destiny's Child."
Little My says "But if it were a Sandman pastiche it would be manifestly Destiny."
Dor . o O ( Manifest Destiny, according to Murphy: If something can go wrong, it will, and then it will take over the continent. )
Garrett says "If it distracted Kit from her housecleaning, it would soon become Manifest Dusty."
Little My says "If moths got into the manuscript, would it be Infested Destiny?"
Denmark is certain that there's something that works out to Manfred Destiny, but he's unable to think of it.
Garrett says "Sure. And if she did a cross-country motorcycle tour to promote it, it would become Manifold Destiny."
Dor says "If she spends too much time worrying about it, will it become Manifret Destiny?"
Garrett says "But she has to be careful not to let the Kitlings at her writing area, lest they become Manifest Desk Tinies."
Henry says "If she moves the setting to Germany it can be Oktoberfest Destiny!"
Henry hmmm. If the book is obviously too thick, is it Manifest Density?
Henry says "And if you have to oh i should stop never mind."
Henry no, no, one more--if you have to starve yourself to get enough money to publish it, the way Hoffman did, it's Manifast Dustiny!
Okay, here's the more coherent version of oh-my-god. *laugh*
So as many people know, I've been working insanely the last several weeks on a site launch. It launched last night at about 6pm. I was still fixing bugs. I was exhausted. And the phone rang, and somebody said, "May I speak with Catherine?"
Now, look. Two sorts of people ask for me by my full name. One sort is bill collectors. I didn't think it was a bill collector, because none of those have called in a long time. The other sort is solicitors. I was tired, grouchy, burned out and unhappy with life in general. I really. Really. *Really*. Did not want to be hit up for money.
So I almost started to say, just right there at the very beginning, "You know, this isn't a good time," and then the woman said, "I'm calling from the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers..."
And my brain turned to goo. Because, you see, they don't call you unless you've made it into the finals. So I KNEW. RIGHT THEN. That my manuscript -- Manifest Destiny -- had made it to the finals. And that meant an editor or agent was actually going to look at it.
I said something clever like, "Oh my God," and then repeated that a lot through the course of the conversation. *laugh*
She -- Anne -- said that my manuscript had *barely* made it to Colorado in time to be entered in the contest, which didn't surprise me, because of the stupid way the post office runs mail, and also because I didn't get the damned package together in time to send it out before the Last Possible Moment. So I wouldn't have been entirely surprised if I hadn't made it in time for the submissions at all, but evidently I did.
And it was good enough to make the finals.
*falls right over*
The really really *important* thing about this contest, from my POV, was making the finals. Winning would be *great*, but making it to the finals meant making it to an editor or agent's desk, and that's the thing you can't *buy*.
Anne said, "Are you coming to the conference?" I was like, "I am now!" Not only do they announce the winners there, but they also have one-on-one workshops you can have with editors and agents. They (highly) recommend arriving with a complete manuscript -- I really need to get writing. O.O Anne also said that many people who don't actually *win* end up with book contracts anyway, just because their stuff's been seen, and AAAAAAAAAAH!
Must write. Must write a LOT. :)
oh my god oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD
I amde the rockty mountain ficutio ... i can't type *helplelss laugh*
i made the rocky moutnain fiction writer's contest finalists. my manuscript is goign to an editor. oh my gohd oh my god oh my GOD oh y GOD
she said my ms just BARELY got ther ein time but OH MY GOD
i have to go die now. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Oh my gawd. I just had a plate full of french toast made with cinnamon raisin bread and drenched in hot syrup delivered to my desk. Wow. All hail Emily! Wow, that was *really* *good*. And to think, I'd been going to have raisin bran. o.o
Also, I have slain a mighty bug on my site launch, so I am smug. Smug smug smug. *flexes mightily*
Apparently a car alarm went off for an hour and a half last night. I utterly slept through it, but poor Ted didn't. He went and pounded on the neighbor's door, but there was no reponse, so he came back and called the cops. Whether they did anything or if the batteries just ran out or what, I don't know, but I guess it turned off around 1:20, and Ted went back to bed. And then the kitten woke him up at 3:30. *wince* Me, I slept through all of it, except Ted got up to throw the kitten out and /that/ woke me up. So poor Ted is very very *very* sleepy today. :/
My friend Christi said this reminded her of me. *chortle*
VPN is down, can't do any work, which is kind of sad, 'cause I was plugging away at bugs this morning, plug plug plug.
Despite not going to bed til almost midnight, I'm much less sleepy today (she typed, as she yawned enormously). Which is good, 'cause I still have a billion bugs to fix. I should get some breakfast, though.
My poor cats. Emily's gotten a bobtail kitten and my cats are very pissy about this interloper. He's a very cute kitten, though. :)
Harold's taking August off and driving around the country. He's keeping a travel journal which recounts the story of Meeting Joss Whedon and Amber Benson, among other amusing anecdotes. :)
Still soooooo sleeeeeepy! Went to bed around 11 last night, slept like the very very dead. Got up still a drooling idiot this morning. I was thinking about taking 2 days off next week. Now I'm thinking about taking 3 days off...
But that's not the interesting part! The interesting part is that Ted went to a mortgage company yesterday and they said we pre-qualified for an up-to $203K house loan.
*falls right over* Given that a year ago (ok, 18 months) they said they'd only give us a house loan with the sacrifice of our right arms and a kidney each, this is pretty amazing. Go us! So we spent quite a lot of time last night driving around looking at houses that we now KNEW if we could possibly buy or not! Mostly, of course, it was not, but y'know, still! Pretty neat! Wow!
Eee! Peter Wingfield is going to be in X2! He's playing an NPC, a bad guy henchman, but WOOOOOOO! Eehehhehehehe!
so clumsy! fingers are thick and cold, been out berry picking since 5:30 this morning, ai! we picked SEVEN QUARTS of raspberries! SO tired! so giggly. *laugh* SEVEN QUARTS. and i saw a coyote! he looked at me! i looked at him! he looked EXTREMELY alarmed! he ran away! emily and dad didn't see him! just me! very cool! lots of exclamation points! many corrections of typos, too. fingers are thick and clumsy. cluuuuuummmmmmmsy. but yesterday we picked THREE quarts of berries before the nasty flies chased us off, and so now we have TEN quarts and wow are my fingers tired.
more breakfast. need to have more breakfast. but first i must say that i biked 16 miles in 75 minutes last night, very smug about that. hauled ass, i did. there was this guy i neded up right behind and for a little while i was right on his ass and then he pulled away and he was like mr. skinny dude so i knew i'd never kee up but pi thought i'd try, and so i beiked the trip to kincaid park a lot faster than i'd normally do (go me) and of course he was on the way back down by the time i managed to get to the top of the hill, but still, that's ok, and then i vroomed home really fast too, except for the part where i stopped to drink water and admire the view and when i got back on my bike i swong um leg over the seat only mised and slammed my whole shin into the back tire, which made me think "that'll leave a mark." :)
ok, i need more breakfast and a shower and then to meet and fix bugs. blah, bugs. but yay breakfast! panckakes!
*staggers off*
Oooooookay, intentions to work being seriously thwarted by the minor detail that I can't log into the work server. Frell.
well, the music festival was a bit of a dud. Fundraiser thing, but they didn't have any real organiziation for the fundraising part, which was sad. We basically only stayed a few minutes. Saw my parents there. Drove around some after that. Uh. Saturday's apparently a blur. Oh, watched all the tv in the world last night. Dead Zone, Stargate, Farscape, Monk (one of these things is not like the others!).
Got up relatively early this morning and went raspberry picking with Dad and Emily. Picked three quarts in about an hour and a half, then decided the flies were too insanely bad to continue any longer, so made plans to get up at O God Hundred tomorrow morning and go out and pick more while the flies were still too chilled to fly. Getting up at 4:45, ugh. But! Homemade raspberry jam. Yummmmmmmmy.
I should be working. I should be going biking later. Tired enough right now that I don't know that i'll accomplish the latter, and haven't much faith in the former, either. Still. Suppose I oughta try.
I went to bed at 7pm last night. Sheesh. And slept, more or less constantly, until 8:30 this morning. And then got up and went on an 18 mile bike ride. I'm feeling better than I was yesterday. O.O Now we're going to the Irish music festival! Bye!
despite being in meetings for FOUR HOURS this morning, i have mightily slain many bugs. i rawk.
Such a headache I have. It's better now than it was before I took aspirin, but still, man.
I have to get breakfast. I've already missed it once because of the stupid 9am meeting, and now I've got another one at 10. I hate meetings.
I also hate canker sores.
I'm just full of hate and loathing this morning, aren't I? On the other hand, I biked 23 miles last night. I'll post some at OYL later. But now, breakfast. And a meeting.
I'm so jealous of coTangent. He's hiking the Pacific Coast Trail this summer. I'd really like to do that someday ... even after reading his blog. :)
Blah. I am very, very tired of working on this site. Very tired. It launches the 9th. By then I'll probably be homicidal. :P
Chanti and I went out for a walk and Cooper, the extremely cute husky puppy who lives next door, was out. That's okay, except his owners don't keep him on a lead when he's just hanging around outside, and of course he and Chanti want to PLAY (which means Chanti bowls him over, because he's still sufficiently smaller than she is for that to happen) and because he's not on a lead he can just FOLLOW and keep PLAYING.
It's very frustrating. :/ I eventually enlisted a five year old to hold onto Cooper's collar until I got around the corner of the buildings with Chantico.
I want a vacation. :P
So my company, or rather, the company that owns mine, which is the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, is down 16% on the stock market today and they're being investigated for Questionable Business Practices.
We're getting all kinds of email from all kinds of CEOs saying WE'RE NOT BAD! We're not being bad! We're *good*! We find it deeply offensive that anyone would *suggest* that we've been bad! We object to being investigated!
I'm pretty much waiting for the truth to out. "Oh gosh, you mean THOSE questionable business practices? We weren't thinking about THOSE when we said we were being good!"
I feel vaguely as if this should go in a friends-only entry, but I don't think GM's got an option like that. I guess I'll just have to assuming Big Brother isn't watching me. :)
I have a stupid canker sore on my cheek. It's not a place I usually get them, so I thought I'd bitten my cheek (actually, I know I did; that's probably what prompted the canker sore) but it kept hurting too much and finally I turned my face half inside out to try to see, and in fact it was a stupid canker sore. I've been putting Ambesol or whatever it's called on it since then, but it's very awkward, and the location of the sore means that the ambesol sort of drifts down the inside of my cheek and numbs half my tongue all the way back into my throat, which is *really* unpleasant.
I hate canker sores. :P
Apparently my company's stock was down 16% at midday on Thursday, and yet it's only a quarter to nine. o.O
My back's a bit achy this morning. Possibly too much exertion last night, what with gymming and then swimming, or equally possibly too much sleeping on my back last night; lying on my back's been making my back ache lately. Herr Doktor says it's because the mattress doesn't conform well enough to the shape of the back (presumably he sleeps on one of those adjusts-to-body-weight $1500 foam mattress sorts of things which the tv says is Real Good For You) and that the auld spine is protesting having to flatten out so much, and that since it's still in the process of healing, it protests /extra/. Anyway, I woke up on my back this morning and it hurts. O.O
Last night, after we went and jumped in a lake, Emily determined that the Thing To Do was make caramel apples. We got out my cookbook and found a caramel recipe, which looked very much like caramel before she added the water that it said to add, and then it turned into caramel syrup, which was, don't mistake me, really quite good, but has nothing to do with the consistency of caramel as we know it. It tasted yummy poured over apple slices, though!
Laura, didn't you say you had a kick-ass caramel apple recipe? Can you send it to me? We thought we'd have to try again, see. :)
Ooh, you know what, though? I bet that syrup would make *awesome* caramel popcorn.
Okay, dying of hunger. Breakfast now.