My voice is coming back... or it was before I came to work today. Now it's going away again. We'll see how long it holds out. I've made it to lunch-time so far...
Our plan for tonight's New Year's Eve is to stay home and watch videos. Paul went out yesterday and brought home about a half-dozen. I doubt I'll be up at midnight but woo! all of those who are! :o)
The good news is I feel less crappy than I did yesterday. Don't let this blog entry breathe on you, and go wash your hands. You don't want this bug.
Sunday we drove to Antioch, Illinois, for a regional fight practice. The big draw was Duke Paul of Bellatrix from California, who was in Chicago to visit his son, Sir Brion. The Duke has written a pretty well-known manual that Duke Finn introduced me to a while back. Getting it in person was much better, though the manual is very well done.
We fought for a while then had a class, in which we covered topics such as movement/footwork, recoveries and power generation. We did a bunch of exercises and drills and it was very cool. I know movement is a weak point for me, so I hope this will help.
I found picking up the body movements wasn't very intuitive for me, so I struggled with it. But I'm sure with work it'll come. I'm hoping that Rusty will be able to work with me on this some.
Have to make Paul a new gambeson, and me a new cyclas.
Ben's birthday was quiet, but nice. And I think he's enjoying the stereo we got him.
Christmas was really nice - Paul and I were *very* surprised to receive a digital camera from his folks... those things are spendy, but they felt we needed one. And we are so glad to have it! It's very cool, it takes short videos as well as photos. I'm sure Paul will post a link to the exact make and model in his blog. Expect to see more photos here! :o)
For our Christmas present for each other, we decided to go with the XM satellite radio system, so we're going to do some research to find the best price we can for the equipment. We're looking for a receiver (which is a small portable unit, no speakers) and the parts necessary to hook it up to our cars stereo systems. My parents are getting us each a kit so the receiver can be installed in either car, so thank you mom and dad. :o)
Happy birthday, Ben!
You were born at either 10:25 or 10:35 in the morning, in Halifax. Sorry, I don't recall more precisely than that. According to Jeff, the Grace hospital has been torn down. Sad. But hey, the hospital where I was born burned down a few years later, so I guess there's another thing we have in common. More or less. :o)
You were a happy baby - you smiled and laughed a lot, and didn't fuss much. You didn't like to go to sleep, though, and cried and struggled against it hard pretty much each time. I used sit in the rocking chair (we bought one when we knew I was pregnant, so we'd have one to rock the baby in) with you on a pillow on my lap (I made a flannel pillowcase just for that). You liked to be wrapped up, so I'd make sure your afgan that Grandma made you was snuggled around you, then just keep rocking till you nodded off.
We lived in Shearwater (22 Firefly Terrace, on the base there). Your first summer was a warm one, and we didn't have air conditioning. The kitchen in that house was fabulous - big and sunny, with a large expanse of tiled floor. One of your favourite things was to be put in your high chair in the middle of that floor, with a thin layer of water in the high chair tray. You would splash and play for an hour at a time, which is a very long time for a baby to do any one thing. It kept you cool *and* occupied.
We moved to Ottawa (Lawnsberry something, Lane I think. In Orleans which is a suburb of Ottawa) that summer, I think. We got a dog from the pound, a really sweet german-shepherd-bunch-of-other-stuff mutt that we named D'Artagnan, and called Dart.
One of the stages of kids learning to walk is when babies pull themselves up to their feet, then use their arms to hold themselves up and for balance, while they shuffle their feet along. You used the dog for that stage: you'd reach up and grab two big handfuls of fur and pull yourself up. Then Dart would walk slowly around and you'd shuffle along beside him. If he went too fast, you'd just let go and sit down. Dart never seemed to mind.
Ben, you are the best child any parent could ever wish for. You're growing up so fast... fourteen. I know life has not always been the peachiest, but you are wonderful. I'm so proud of you, and dad and I and Jeff love you very much.
Happy birthday, Ben.
Love,
your mom
Hey there, all.
I wrote an entry yesterday. It was something pithy, I'm sure of it. Machine ate it. :op
I found this site - see Earth from a whole whack of satellites!
Paul and I are looking at satellite radio for each other for Christmas, so we're not getting each other 'presents' as such. Which feels very odd. We're deciding which supplier to go with, Sirius or XM. Sirius will have the NHL when it exists again, but the "punk" station looks really lame. The Beastie Boys? Not in *my* radio. It's a combination punk/hip-hop(!)/metal station... I dunno what'd happen if you put a bunch of punkers and a bunch of hip-hoppers in a room together, but I bet it wouldn't be pretty. I can't imagine what demographic the station execs think they're trying to reach with that combination.
SO Right now we're leaning toward XM, which has a ska show on their punk station. With no hip-hop.
Tonight, Ben wants to play Fluxx, so we have some family time not in front of the TV, which will be nice. Though we have been enjoying the DVDs of Keen Eddie we found.
Hugs all around.
Welcome to another Monday morning.
Ben's party went pretty well, I think. Paul worked really hard and pulled it off basically on his own. His friend Henry loaned us a computer and did some work on the network too, I think... I'm not sure, since I was off and running to get the ice-cream cakes. Baskin-Robbins. Pricey. I haven't had any yet, but I will tonight, so I'm hoping they were worth it! :o)
We went to the last fight practice of the year on Thursday, at Leif's site on Kenosha. It's a 'half-gym' on a university campus. Showers, water fountains, clothes hooks, INDOORS... it's really nice. :o) Practice was fun.
My side has been doing well. I've been trying to eat less, since that's the only thing I can find so far that helps. And to not sit so close to my desk that the edge of the desk presses into my stomach.
Both Christmas Day and New Year's Day are on Saturday this year... so I don't get a day off this week or next for them. Apparently I got a 'personal' day during the year in exchange for them, but I didn't know at the time. So now I'm feeling ripped off. Silly, I know. I *like* having days off at Christmas.
It's snowing, and the wind is blowing quite hard, so visibility is awful. Look! It's winter.
... Ben wants a LAN party. Paul looked into it, and found out that noone in Milwaukee does them anymore. So Ben is asking his friends if they will be allowed to bring their computers over on Sunday. Paul says he can set it up if they bring their machines. *That* should be interesting.
It just occurred to me that I ought to have already bought tickets to "Spamalot" which I desperately want to see... but now it looks sold out. Owroo!!
LU course is done. Now I just wait for marks. I took a look at the January session distance-ed schedule and it doesn't look like there are going to be ANY sociologies offered. That means I wait till probably September for my next class. Bleah. I'm going to email my academic advisor and verify if that is the case. I'll keep you posted.
I wonder if I can take a class at a University here and have it count? Hm.
Every now and then she starts to slide. Most times she wakes up a bit and catches herself before she falls all the way off.
My LU paper is half done. I've started looking at courses beginning in January. When my degree is done, I'm throwing a party. You're invited. Wanna come?
My side is a little less sore than it was yesterday, but sitting up and working at the computer has been uncomfortable. And all that lying on my left side has torched my back. BUT I found a nifty thing that will help with that - I used to own a beautiful set of wooden back bridges (when I was a massage therapist). They were handmade on the east coast and very expensive. I loaned them to another therapist when I moved down here the first time and he kinda disappeared and never returned them. I found something similar in a catalogue from a company called Herrington. They sell a wide variety of stuff, mostly junk, but as I paged through this catalogue, there it was! :o) I gave up on getting my set of bridges back a long time ago, but now it looks like I can replace them with something similar. So yay for that. :o) January. I can hang on till then.
Practice tomorrow, maybe. I won't get in armour yet but I can do work out of armour, to see how the movement feels. Paul has a nasty cold, so we'll see if we end up going or staying home and taking meds... Paul, DayQuil, and me, painkillers. Whee. The doc prescribed percoset for me, but I don't want to take that... acetominophen works. I'll keep you posted.
Now, time for bed. 'Night! :o)
After two days spent basically in bed and eating bland foods, I think my side is getting less sore.
Missing this much work has me worried.
Finishing up the LU course I'm taking, and looking at what I might take next. I found this format to be really hard, because there were no classes as such, so there was no schedule imposed on me.
Only just starting to think about Christmas. Eep.
Sigh.
The way it was done in Shaun of the Dead was GROSS. And he had help from about a dozen zombies. And he died. Horribly. So I'd rather not do it that way... but I'm getting pretty frustrated with this whole abdominal pain thing. Back to bed rest and bland diet tonight.
I've been trying to write Monday to Friday, in between calls at work, but it's just been too busy. Sorry!
My stomach has been feeling gradually better; still not 100% but somewhat better.
It was *so* good to see Kristine, James, Kathy and Garrett this weekend, plus I got to meet someone new from back in Thunder Bay, Jamie. Kathy stayed with a lady here in town named Jondalara and Jamie stayed with my squire-brother Rodrigo. We had a full house as it was! Sadly, we didn't spend a lot of time together as a group, but it felt really good to have those famiiar faces around. :o)
The event itself went swimmingly. Katerine ran the show beautifully (she was the event "autocrat") and I was very surprised to find out about half way through the day that this was her first time running an event. She is *so*organized. I'd work in her event staff anytime.
The fighting went well, I think. Basically it was 5 hours of all-the-combat-you can-stand, and it seemed to go over reasonably well. I had to kick a few people off the list field at 4:00, but mostly people wore out before that.
I got to fight only three times. Other than that, I was making sure my marshals were taken care of, spelling them out, keeping an eye on the Royals handing out flowers and watching the flower supply... I fought with Aubrey (Knight, Viscount of Northshield), Aaron (Knight, Pelican, Baron) and Sven Tunheim, my apprentice brother. :o) It was *fun*.
My LU course is over except for the last assignments...