Time to go to Canada!

We're headed to Vancouver this weekend for our honeymoon, which we intentionally delayed until this weekend, because a) it is a 3 day weekend, and b) I was pretty much out of vacation time right after the wedding. We don't have much of anything planned, and I think that will be the best way to do it. :)

But it does mean that we're disconnecting from the interwebz and most contact for the majority of the weekend. I'm turning off my phone when I get on the train, and Jeremy will be turning off his phone before we get to Canada. We are bringing one laptop, so there might be some internet here and there, but really, I'm hoping for less rather than more.

I'm taking the real camera, which means pictures... at least in theory. I often forget to take the camera out, and at the moment, it's in its bag, in my purse. Which is to say, not particularly accessible. But I'll work on it.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to eat lunch and then go buy a watch, which is not something I have done since before I owned a cell phone. :)

Here, There, and Everywhere

We're gearing up for a month FILLED with travel, which produces all sorts of thrilling complications. Most of the complications are things I've already taken care of: we have our accommodations and transportation booked well in advance of the trips. But we've got to line up a cat sitter for 3 weekends in March and one in April. And today we had to sort out Jeremy's vacation for pretty much the entire year to make sure that he will have enough to get through November. Suffice it to say, we will NOT be traveling this December, because we'll both be scraping the bottom of the vacation barrel by the time we go to ACNW.

Of course, only one of these trips is a work related trip for me, as I'll be attending a conference in Portland. Not my typical work trip, and Jeremy gets to join me for the end of it. :) All the rest is fun travel, and the last trip isn't even out of Seattle, but we're staying at a hotel rather than dealing with driving in every day and parking near the airport. Both are nightmares.

This is certain to throw off all of my regularly scheduled everything--crafting, writing, blogging, and more. But hopefully all of the fun stuff will outweigh the chaos that it causes. :)

Wow

So my vacation was great. It was super relaxing, but I also got a lot of crocheting done. The presents I had picked out for the kids were a HUGE hit, especially the hats I made and the stuff I found on Etsy. I was really pleased by the latter, because I like having people to buy for who appreciate handmade stuff. :) (The belle of the ball has been stuff from Kayce's Nue to Me shop, which I did buy quite a bit of...)

Then we got back, and I was in the office one day, but sick by that afternoon. I spent the last two days at home watching Battlestar Galactica, crocheting, and otherwise being a lump. But I'm pleased to report that I feel MUCH better now (and am back in the office).

I finally get to play in our Saturday afternoon game tomorrow, which has switched from being the all-combat Exalted game to a Scion game run by Jeremy. I'll be playing a daughter of Baron Samedi who is a tattoo artist. :)

Sunday is my final show of this winter, at I Heart Rummage. One last chance to get handmade Christmas gifts if you haven't already finished your shopping! :) And if you have, come and buy stuff for yourself! :)

I'm looking forward to my four day weekend for Christmas, which will include the zoo, the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and Chinese food. Oh, and a present. Jeremy picked up the box that contains my present on Wednesday night, and gave it to me to carry. In my sickly state, I had to give it back to him, because it's too heavy. I have NO clue what it is. I'm looking forward to opening presents on Christmas morning. He will have a stack to open from me... which reminds me, still gotta pick up the last couple of things for him. (Alas, not handmade.) :)

Going to California

This will probably be the last post I make for about a week, as we get up bright and early tomorrow morning to fly to California, where I'll be meeting Jeremy's mom, his remaining siblings (I've already met his youngest brother), and all of his nieces and nephews. This is only marginally nerve-wracking, as such things tend to be. Mainly, I'm just hoping that everyone likes me and that the kids all love what we got them for Christmas. Because seriously, I think we're bringing an entire suitcase just for presents. :)

For whatever reason, the original flight I had us on got changed to an earlier flight, which is a bit of a pain. We have to get up at the usual time tomorrow morning (o'dark thirty), and we really need to pack and get everything else done tonight. We've gotta figure out how to get Black over to Uncle Andrew's house, as he is doing much better, but still should probably be isolated and watched for any signs that he's not continuing to get better. He does at least get to play with the other cats at Andrew's this time, though, which will make all of them very happy. :)

Our plans for California are pretty much entirely family stuff. We'll head straight to Jeremy's mom's house tomorrow afternoon. Friday, we're going to spend the day in libraries and cemeteries, working on his family's genealogy. Saturday, we're meeting up with one of his brothers (who Jeremy has not seen since said brother was a baby, and said brother is 30 now) and his family. Sunday, Jeremy's mom is having all of her kids (Jeremy, another brother, and his only sister) and their kids over for dinner. Monday, we fly back. It'll be a bit of a whirlwind, but with the flights and all, we really only have three solid days to spend.

So yeah, don't expect much out of me till I'm back in the office on Tuesday. In the meantime, I'm going to be crocheting like a madwoman and trying to work on stuff for my Vampire game. Hopefully not at the same time. The world does not need a crocheting vampire beyond my old character, Mel. :)

I slack, therefore I am

Actually, I can blame my lack of posts on my lack of actually being in my office. :) I've had a bunch of vacation recently, with more to come soon!

We spent the first weekend of October (including Friday and Monday) in Portland for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival. This was mainly something that Jeremy wanted to do, but I ended up having a blast as well. I made a pair of Cthulhu bun covers and wore them on Saturday, and within 5 minutes of finding seats for the first movie block, I was handing out business cards. Now I just have to finish making the pairs for my shop, so the people who I gave cards to will have something to buy from me. :)

Tuesday I worked half a day and took the afternoon off, and Wednesday I went in late so I could take one of our cats to the vet. She was having some digestive problems on Monday when we got back, and as she is a rather elderly cat (Jeremy thinks she's 14. She might not be quite that old.) we thought she should see the vet. She's doing much better now, and we're awaiting test results to see if she has any ongoing issues that we should be taking care of. So I finally worked a full day today, just in time to leave for another vacation. :)

We're off to St. Louis tomorrow for a long weekend, so that we can attend a Grant lecture in honor of my former boss, see all of my siblings and other family members, and see my friends from Carbondale. Jeremy is only mildly terrified of the fact that he'll be meeting my whole family and my best friends from "back home." I keep telling him he'll be just fine. I don't think he'll be convinced until we're there, or possibly not till we come home on Monday.

At least after that things will be mostly back to normal... oh, except for heading back to KC for a week. Yup, that's my life... I have this office, and I never see it. *sigh*

Back in Seattle!

I neglected to post while I was in Carbondale, which is made more amusing by the fact that I spent the majority of my time in Carbondale on my computer. Okay, maybe TECHNICALLY I slept and did other stuff for more time than I was on my computer, but I bet it was a close number of hours.

So now that I'm back, I'm here for all of tomorrow and most of Sunday, before trekking off to Portland. It's for work, of course, though I didn't even find out that the trip was a definite thing until I was already on vacation. So I've only halfway unpacked my backpack, and will have to pack my suitcase after I do some laundry, as I seem to be running short on socks.

At any rate, I am glad that the snowpocalypse has receded, and I hope it stays that way for the rest of the winter. I'm not sure how much more snow I can take. At least I had some nice 60 degree days in Carbondale. :)

Glee!

Okay, I'm going to try NOT talking about the weather today, since I'm sure that those of you in Seattle are sick of thinking about it, and those of you not in Seattle are sick of me whining about it. :)

As of 5 p.m. today, I am officially on vacation until January 5th! This is exceptionally exciting to me, because it's a nice, long vacation. I'll be traveling for the bulk of it, but that's fun in and of itself. And by the time I get back, perhaps Seattle will be back to normal. :)

Tomorrow will be slightly odd, though, as it sure won't feel like Christmas Eve. I get to do fun things like laundry, packing, and possibly playing a Christmas themed Cthulhu game. Oh, and maybe going to a comic shop and a tattoo shop, just to check it out.

In other news, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" is laugh out loud funny. I missed it when it was available for free online, so I ordered the DVD as soon as I found out about it, and got it yesterday. Definitely worth the $10 and the extra I paid to make sure I would have it before Christmas. :) I kinda want the soundtrack now, so I can sing all of the songs incessantly. :)

My posting while I'm traveling may be sporadic, so if I don't get back on here before then, Merry Christmahanakwanzakah. :)

Back to the land of the rain and gray...

Okay, so it's a bad take on a Led Zeppelin lyric, but it's true. We're back. It's rainy, it's gray, and we LOVE it!

Southern Illinois is a veritable hotbed of pollen and other allergens at this time of year, so both Jerome and I were struggling to not end up with sinus problems during our trip. As soon as we were in Minneapolis, Jerome said he could breathe again. My sinuses are still trying to get rid of all of the gunk from Illinois, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed being back in the damp air of Seattle when we walked into the parking garage last night. :)

The trip went very well, though. We got into St. Louis on Wednesday night and spent some time with my mom and her cat. Thursday, we made the drive down to Carbondale, got to have New Kahala again, and got to catch up with our friends at the rehearsal and dinner, and then play Rock Band with them till the wee hours of the morning.

We didn't do much of anything on Friday, except play Bang! with most of the same group of people, while we tried to avoid the insanity that is Halloween in Carbondale. No riots, as far as I know, though I did hear snippets of a story of 200 people in drag outside of Bryan and Vanessa's neighbor's apartment, I suspect after the bars closed.

Saturday was the longest day ever, with the whole getting up around 6:30 and not getting back to the house until after 1 a.m. Well, we were back for a bit in the afternoon, but it wasn't a particularly long stretch of time. I actually slept for about 4 hours at game, and still went back to the house and slept about 10 hours that night. But the wedding was lovely, the reception was fun, and the portions of game I was awake for were great. :)

Sunday was mostly spent sleeping, and then shopping, and then eating. Cindy had asked Thor to make egg rolls, and I asked Jerome to make stir fry. Because there are vegetarians in our midst down there, this entailed making a bit more food than originally anticipated, so they could eat with us. But it was all thoroughly delicious, and we're already planning meals for when we visit at Christmas. I've been tapped to make my spaghetti sauce, one version with meat and one without. :)

Monday was up relatively early, and then on the road to return home. We had a fun little bit when the road I wanted to take was closed, so we had to take a detour. I was convinced, however, that I knew this area well enough, so we took our own detour off of the detour, and eventually got back to the road we wanted to be on. :) The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was exceptionally bumpy, but we got back safely, got a cab, and were whisked home FAR faster than the bus could have gotten us there. Totally worth the extra money for the cab. :)

So now I'm back at work, and it's election day. We're headed to the polls after I get off work, then dinner, and then buying groceries, as we have nothing to eat at home. Jerome decided that he needed today off work too, so he gets to take care of all of the laundry. Hopefully we'll be all back to normal by the weekend, just in time for me to run off to Kansas for a week. Whee!

What day is it now?

I guess I do know that it's Halloween, which makes it Friday I suppose. Vacation has a very funny way of totally warping my perceptions, though. :)

So we spent most of Wednesday in transit, stayed at my mom's house overnight, and drove down to Carbondale on Thursday. We spent the rest of the day catching up with Thor and Cindy, our friends who we're staying with, and then doing wedding related activities. We had the rehearsal in the freezing cold chapel, and then went to dinner at a pretty decent Italian place. After that, everyone decided to go hang out Bryan and Vanessa's (groom and bride) apartment, because Michael (one of their roomies) has Rock Band. :) Of course, said roomie wasn't home, but that's okay. If the game is in the living room, it's fair game. :)

Today has been mostly sitting around like bums. :) We're getting ready to head back over to Bryan and Vanessa's for an abbreviated Halloween party, due to the fact that we have to be ready for wedding pictures at 9:15 tomorrow, and the chapel is about half an hour from here. Keep in mind, too, that we're staying with one of the other bridesmaids, whose husband will also be at the wedding. So that's 4 of us that have to get up, showered, and ready, by like 8:30. Ugh. Their other roomie is lucky--after we leave, he'll have the whole place to himself, and a good hour and a half to get ready.

My brain, it is turned off now.

Okay, so technically it's not completely off, but I've been walking around for most of the day thinking that it's Thursday. More specifically, that it's LAST Thursday. When I was at UW and saw the paper saying it was the 27th, my brain went "pshaw, that's not possible." Only it is.

This is largely because for me, it may as well be Thursday. Tomorrow is my Friday already. How awesome is that?! Of course, getting through tomorrow, with the amount of work I have stacked up on my plate, is another matter entirely. This is all of the work variety, as most of what we need to do still before leaving is easy stuff, like packing. Can't do that till Jerome does the laundry tomorrow, so therefore not on my radar yet. :)

Today, my only remaining duties? To figure out what we have that we can eat, since we decided to skip grocery shopping in favor of more Rock Band 2 last night. :) Luckily, it made sense to not go grocery shopping, since we don't wanna load up the fridge with stuff that will go bad before we get back. However, it may make for some interesting meals for today and tomorrow. I foresee a lot of eggs in our future, as they're one of the few things we have that needs to be used up before we go. :)

Recap!

So I haven't been legitimately BUSY this week, I've just been not on the computer as much as I usually am. You can blame the vast majority of that fact on Rock Band 2. It's pretty sweet. :) I've been directed to start learning to play guitar on there, however, as apparently Jerome wants to sing sometimes. :)

Other than that, I haven't done a whole lot. I only crocheted a bit on Tuesday night, when I decreed that we should watch a movie so I could get SOMETHING done. Of course, I only worked on Christmas gifts that night. :) I'm planning to get a bit of craftiness accomplished over the weekend, though I'm not sure how much of it will be for my shops, and how much of it will just be for fun. Either way, though, it'll be good to get something done. :)

We're also getting ready for the trip to Illinois for Halloween and Bryan and Vanessa's wedding. My dress is cleaned, and I figured out which shoes to wear with it. Jerome's kilt needs to be washed, but that can go in the regular washing machine. And he's got Tuesday off to take care of the last minute laundry and such, so that I can pack when I get home that night. :) We also found out we get to LARP while we're there, so that's an exciting addition to the trip... and I think Cindy and I will hit the after-Halloween sales on Sunday, since the wedding is early on Saturday.

Once we're back from that, I'm not in town for long before I run off to Kansas for a week. This is the trip to NOT the good part of Kansas, though I will get to hang out with one of our friends from Seattle who moved to Lawrence while I'm out there. So that makes it a little better than middle-of-nowhere Kansas. :) And then after that trip, I might actually be in Seattle until Christmas... of course that's just wishful thinking, I'm sure. :)

Oh, and End of the Work Week Wisdom?

"They ate all the cupcakes. They're going to come out and be like 'oh, that was a bad choice.' They'll have icing smeared all over their faces."
--Me, explaining why Apocalyptica took so long to take the stage last night

And speaking of, I'm not sure I like Showbox Market.
1) The only place where you can be up higher than on the floor is in the bar area.
2) The only place where you can sit is in the bar area.
3) The bar area is COMPLETELY packed during an all ages show.
4) The floor BOUNCES when people start jumping around.

Honestly, it's prettier on the inside than El Corazon, but I'm really prefering El Corazon. They at least have a narrow little wall that's raised up that I can sit on. :) Of course, having seen Showbox Market, I'm really dreading our excursion to Showbox SoDo, or as Anandi calls it, "ConcreteBox."

How many times can a chicken lose their head?

Yes, I am chicken, no head, yet again. This week, I need to get things ready for my Werewolf game and for the Handmade Arts Show this Sunday. Doesn't seem like all that much to do, but I'm behind on both, and basically need to have both done by Saturday night, because I'll be up early on Sunday to drive up to Kenmore for the show. Whee!

Somewhat busy at work, but not overly so. I found out today that they wanted to send me to Fort Worth, but because of my vacation at the end of the month, it ain't happening. There was a brief moment when the suggestion came up that I go from vacation to Fort Worth. Only problem with that is that I would essentially be on the road for 17 days straight. Okay, technically it would be 10 days out (vacation and Ft. Worth), 1 day home, and 6 days out (Kansas), but that may as well be 17 days straight. So I guess I'm not going to Texas this time. :)

And yeah, I think I just need to not fuss about the vacation until AFTER this weekend... that will make my life so much easier. If someone can tell me about how long it usually takes to get a bridesmaid type dress dry cleaned, I can hold that bit of stress off until next week...

And, we're back...

Coming back to work after a five day weekend is hard. Staying home and being lazy again sounded like a wonderful idea this morning, but I knew there was stuff I needed to do here. I just wasn't sure what that stuff was till I got back in my office and reviewed all of my stacks of stuff. :)

So the very quick weekend recap:
1) Lots of fun with Jerome's sister, who came to visit for his birthday.
2) Hellboy II was FAR better than the first one, and used one of my very favorite songs in the world. :)
3) Eddie Izzard is hilarious, even if you have a tall person sitting directly in front of you. I guess that's the downside to sitting dead center (in the 3rd balcony)--it's pretty much guaranteed that he will spend most of the show directly in front of you, but so will a bunch of other people. :(
4) Sitting at the airport for 3+ hours is no fun.

Jerome's dad arrived safely, though, just a bit later than originally planned. Jerome is still off work all this week so that they can do stuff, but I'm at work while they have fun. Ah well, they're each going to cook one night this week, so that's exciting. :)

Vacation is so close I can taste it...

Today is going to be a fabulous day, as we're only really working for the first half of the day. Then we're all getting on a plane and flying over to the main office for a picnic. And then I get to get up at something ridiculous like 4 a.m. so I can fly back to Seattle and go to Mayhem tomorrow... but I don't care, cuz I'll be on vacation! :)

Jerome says I officially look like a lazy slacker today, because I'm wearing his Ramones T-shirt and a pair of shorts at work. Meh, I don't care. I want to be comfortable on the plane, and not have to change clothes before the picnic. Though if it turns out SUPER hot in Montana (which it might), I have a different shirt to wear. Still black, though... we seriously own too few non-black T-shirts. :)

So yeah, I may pop on here from time to time to say hello, but I'm on vacation till the 14th. w00t! :)

Hmmm... I forgot to post this morning... how weird! :)

Not that I had much of anything exciting to say, really... I was thinking earlier today that tonight must be wrestling night, but I was wrong... that's tomorrow night... it's weird, though, because we didn't really watch much of Raw on Monday night... just the Mick Foley / Triple H match, which ROCKED... but then again, I'm a huge Mick Foley fan... :) He's absolutely nuts... and you have to respect that in a wrestler... :)

So yeah, last night was lots of chatting, until my damn computer just absolutely refused to get back online... it's actually the phone line that has problems... never works right when it rains... so I had been warning people all night that I might just disappear and not come back... but that was the fault of the phone line, not them... :)

And I've been trying to watch "Romeo+Juliet" while I go to sleep, but I keep falling asleep... *sigh*... I also get the sense that it might be similar to "Fight Club" in the disjointed-ness of the sound, cuz I wasn't able to get to sleep solidly until it was turned off...

Anyways... yeah... gotta figure out when I want to take my vacation this summer... and got to figure out if we're gonna go somewhere, or just stay in town... last summer, I stayed in town for my vacation (all except the day when I went to St. Louis to see TMBG)... and that was fun... but I also had a lot of stuff to get done that week... this summer, I probably won't have much to do... so going somewhere is a definite option...

I'd say New Orleans, but I really don't wanna deal with the heat... New Orleans is better in the spring, or maybe the fall... I wish SIU still closed for the week of Halloween... cuz that would rock if we could go to New Orleans then... :)

So if we do go anywhere this summer, it's probably gonna be local (as in 2-4 hour drive, probably)... and I don't have any good ideas... *sigh*...

Day 5 of the ScaryWhiteGirl's vacation!

I can only hear partially out of my left ear at the moment. My right ear is much better. The concert was frickin' AWESOME! :) I didn't get stepped on, didn't get smushed, or anything like that... :) They played a lot of songs from "No!" which is their new kids music album, and a lot of other stuff that I didn't know... I felt soooooo out of the loop! But they played enough songs that I did know... :)

Got "I Got Lost" and "No!" and a T-shirt at the concert, and picked up the newest Apoptygma Berzerk at Vintage Vinyl before the show... so all in all, a really good night! :)

Well, it's the last day of the real vacation. Just got the weekend, and then back to work on Monday. *sigh*... there's gonna be a lot of stuff to do when I get back to work...

Day 4 of the ScaryWhiteGirl's vacation has begun. Early today, cuz I've got stuff to do before we drive up to get Macke, and head up to St. Louis to go see They Might Be Giants. w00t! :)

Because I have time, let's review the times I have seen They Might Be Giants.

The first time was in the fall of 1992, near the beginning of my freshman year of college, at Mississippi Nights. I went with Nate and Chris, but we were meeting a bunch of BBS folks there. Within five minutes of arriving, Tom (Katar) had proposed to me... that was bizarre... :) I think that was the time we got them to play the theme song from "Sesame Street" for "Stump the Band"...

The second time was Pointfest 1, which I think was in the early fall of 1993. Because TMBG is what Pointfest is really all about! :) But you know, getting Midnight Oil's autographs was a bonus as well! :)

The third time was Pointfest 2, which would have been the summer of 1994. This was the time that I drove like 6 other people to Pointfest... two of whom lived in South County... and they went to see the Violent Femmes, who were headlining that year. So while most of my passengers and I sat in the van, they were still watching the Femmes play. So it took FOREVER till we got out of there! But TMBG was still kewl! :)

The fourth time was in Kirksville, in March of 1995. My mom, brother, and sister (Megan) all came up for this one. It rocked! :) We wanted them to play "Crimson and Clover" if they did "Stump the Band," but they didn't. Bummer. This was also where Megan and I got our fear of people who sing about fresh garbage and play banjo... *shudder*...

The fifth time was a day or so before Pointfest 4, in August of 1995. I think this is the time I wore sandals to a TMBG show... at Mississippi Nights... bad idea! :) Jim and Carrie went with me this time, and it was a good time, even if I couldn't be in the quasi-mosh pit... :)

The sixth time was Pointfest 4, in August of 1995. The last one that TMBG played at... *sniffle*... this was the year of the water bottle fight (I was in the seats, and one nearly hit me). This was also the year that I wandered around Pointfest with my nearly waist length hair (which had just been dyed red) all in tiny braids, and had written all over myself with permanent marker... :) That was fun... :)

And now I get to see them tonight... after nearly 7 years... it's been WAY too long...

That's all for now! :)

Day 3 of the ScaryWhiteGirl's vacation is getting close to the end. My major accomplishment for the day: I am now the proud owner of a cell phone! I feel all trendy and stuff! I've been sitting around entertaining my friends by playing with it, and giggling like a schoolgirl when I find something nifty. At the moment, it plays "Ride of the Valkyries" when it rings... sweet... :)

No, I'm not posting the number here. Cuz most of the people I would want to call me won't, and the people who I don't want to call me will. Yeah, that made sense to me... :)

Now we're just awaiting the arrival of two new players for Southern Lights, and then we get to play. w00t! :) I'll update that page sooner or later... probably next week... :)

Day 2 of the ScaryWhiteGirl's vacation. Lots and lots of shopping with Megan, which was lots of fun, but very tiring. And the Saturn is all better now... yay! :)

Not a whole lot else to say at the moment. Just keeping my readers all updated and stuff... :)

TMBG in 2 days... w00t! :)

Day 1 of the ScaryWhiteGirl's vacation is passing with minimal incident. The new water heater is being installed as I type. w00t! Hot water is a glorious thing! I'm just glad I already had this week off of work! :)

Not a whole lot going on other than that. Just chilling online and maybe gonna read in a bit.