Just a friendly reminder

Hey kids!

Do you know what tomorrow is?

TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!!!!!!!!

You simply *must* talk like a pirate! It's the law in these parts.

In other news - the Kid is enjoying first grade, I recently celebrated five years (FIVE YEARS!!!!) with Z, I am no closer to finishing the second Thelma story, and have written out but not typed out a felted bag pattern. And I learned how to dye yarn with Kool-aid, but I may have covered that already.

It's tough when you never ever blog, and suddenly there's all this stuff to talk about. I've been trying to contact friends from long ago, whether via facebook or some other medium, and have been doing well so far. :) In a way, it feels good to have people who remember who you were, as well as those who know who you are now. Also, it's interesting to see who knows who and how. You do get some unexpected crossovers.

I need to make a point to get back onto irc again soon. I have been so busy with life in general that I just forget. I also need to work on my swap packages! For several lovely people! Also the Minion Hats for the Ravelry Venture Brothers group. Fun!

Hm, I did name this appropriately.

It's Olympics time! Once again, my family and I celebrate the spirits of world togetherness and athleticism by sitting on our butts and watching different events at opposite ends of the house. Yay! Well, that is an exaggeration; we are often together watching the same event. But I do find it amusing that as a world, we celebrate our athletes by sitting and staring at them on television. Go irony! As for me, this is the first Olympics that I suddenly realize that I am *way older* than most of the competitors (especially in some highlighted events - I'm looking at you, gymnastics - where the athletes are literally half my age) and super out of shape, so my shoulders and arms are sore from doing extra time with Wii Fit in the mornings.

Ah, Wii Fit. I have a love-hate relationship with my daily routine on the balance board. I haven't seen whether anyone else has a hardware problem with it, but sometimes, my board freaks out in the middle of longer step and boxing sessions, and I have to get off, turn it off and on again, and resume, having now missed several steps, breaking my flow and lowering my score. Yes, I know score doesn't really matter, but I do get a bit miffed. I'm the only one in the house that has this issue, but ever since last month, I'm the only one really using it besides Liam on the balance games. I actually deleted a few family profiles since they hadn't been used. At least I'll be getting my money's worth out of it - even if I just keep losing what seems to be the same five pounds over and over. Whatever. It's better than doing nothing, and even if I weigh the same, I look and feel a bit different. Also taller. Hard to explain.

One of the other things keeping my on my butt is participation in the Ravelympics! During the Olympics, I have taken it upon myself to finish three different knitting and crocheting projects. If they are completed in time, I win. If not, no medal for me! I chase a back-to-school vest for Liam, a Pokemon stuffed toy, and (in the Works-in-Progress Wrestling event) a promise to finally complete that green Megaman backpack I started two years ago and never bothered to sew together. There's time to do this! I'm almost halfway done with the vest already, and I'm feeling confident about the rest.

Another fun treat for me has been my subscription to the Venture Brothers Shirt Club. Oh my god. Awesome. Every week, I get a new, VB-themed t-shirt. My favorite is the Dean! shirt, but they all rock pretty hard. Well, I'm not crazy about the OSI one, but I'm sure it'll grow on me. I've seen the shirts going on eBay for much more than I paid for them, so I'm glad I decided to get in on it when I did. Especially since they only make each design available for one week. Yikes.

Instead of going on a big vacation this year (although I must confess the Disney Weekend in May was rather good), my family has been going on a series of short trips. Camping with our friends at their place in the Poconos. Anime Next (and the kid cosplaying as a Moogle, super cute). Wild West City. The one I'm missing to go to work today, at the Crayola factory. The Butterfly Gardens. One I'm plotting for Saturday to Nintendo World and maybe Jekyll & Hyde's. Many of these are known only to the planner (it's me, mom, Judy, and out friend Donna plotting these) until we arrive at our destination. It's pretty awesome. And I find I can work my weekly assignments for work into four days, so it's easy enough for me to take a day off if needed.

Stuff I need to do: take the Kid back-to-school shopping (ack, first grade!), do my financial aid paperwork, schedule my last six classes. It's too hot to think about school, though. Just. Too. Hot. It's not too bad outside, but somehow my bedroom and living room have become giant easy-bake ovens. Last night I woke up around two because it was so so hot in here. The boy was fine; he managed to get a breeze through his room somehow, but it was stifling in here. I grabbed some iced tea, turned on the house fan (why was it off?!?) and moved the floor fan to the foot of the bed. And fell asleep immediately. I prefer a cool room for sleeping, so summers are not a restful time. Yes, we have air conditioning. No, we're not using it. Unless it goes over ninety-two (or it's horrifically thick and heavy with humidity), it's lower-cost fans.

No fiction lately, although I have been considering some of the early-Thelma ideas. Nothing seems to gel though. I want to get it in gear so I can amuse myself and others. The world needs more humor; I'd be honored to provide it.

Thinking about Thelma.

Still need to work a bit more on Thelma and what else I want to do with her. Initially, I was going to go into her background as a young Monster Hunter, and how her pals were some of her wacky sidekicks, etc., but then it occurred to me that it wouldn't be as much fun as it is with her as she is now.

Old Ladies Fighting the Undead. It's a new fiction genre that I'm starting up. Anyone else does it, they gotta report to me.

Why this is great: Consider that the characters are facing their own mortality as well; the risk of turning is more *real* to you when it's more than just battle accidents and dismemberment that'll make your protagonists fall. Imagine seeing your recently deceased friends up and about and eating brains. It's more likely for the old than it is for the young, if you think about it. Having dead friends, not eating brains.

Why do these things come to me when I should be doing work for school? Sigh.

My (not-so-impressive) goals for this weekend

1. Get the invitations ready for the Kiddo's birthday party. It's next weekend, so I hope I can get the friends from school in time. Partially done: need to buy colored ink to print them out for him to bring to school Monday. He helped design them. ^.^DONE!



2. Put together the Christmas list. Pretty much everyone's getting handmade things this year, but how many gifts do I still need to put together? Who am I exchanging with? Do I even know? (and is it OK to hint that I'd LOVE the Aziraphale and Crowley perfumes? And how cool is it that they even EXIST?) Work in progress.....

3. Shave the legs. It's a jungle down there. Sure, no one sees my legs but Z, and he's still in Georgia for another two weeks, but it can't hurt to start some maintenance down there. I'm starting to look a little manly. Done. It's nice to look like a girl again.

4. Make my room no longer look like a yarn shop threw up in a thrift shop. There's some serious straightening that needs to be done. Also, getting the assorted strings organized will help a bit with #2. Not quite done. Spent more time in the Kid's room than mine. Sigh.

5. Work. Yes, that still needs to be done, as well, doesn't it? Alas. To be honest, I did shift a fair amount of my store visits to Friday and Saturday this week so I can spend more time with the kid. But I can still Do It All. A challenge appeared when the Kid needed to go to see the doctor Friday afternoon, but I'm on my way to finish things up as soon as I get my uniform on. Forget that. Done, baby, done!

6. Actually call my brother and have a real conversation with him that doesn't involve either one of us reading out loud from the internet. DONE!!!! He's working overnights now. Weird....

Finished things, things in progress, things yet to be done

That's a generic title for ya. Woo!

I finished grafting the toe on the kid's second sock yesterday. They're finally done! I'm going to give them a spin through the wash (and wait for cooler weather) before he wears them anywhere, but they look fantastic. I also finished the first of a pair of Monkeys. I think when I remake these for my mother, I'll substitute a short-row heel, only because I dislike the look of heel flaps. I guess I'm just picky like that. Pictures are when my lazy butt actually decides to take them.... :)

I recently reread all six of my Jasper Fforde books. (The first four Thursdays and the first two NCDs, for the curious.) Out of order. Purposely. I like seeing where things that happen in the earlier books go to in the later ones, and reading them out of sequence makes the setups more visible. I like that. Fforde's a great writer; I hold him to the same high standards that I do Pratchett. He assumes that his reader knows what he's talking about when he makes out-of-the-ordinary references; does that make sense? It's not pandering to the lowest common denominator, which I can't stand. (See also: why I don't read romance novels) His books make you want to enthusiastically tackle the classics.

On the stove, right now, a pot of chicken rice soup is simmering. I made a roast chicken last night, and purposely chose side dishes that would work well in soup. (Except for the apple/raisin/onion stuffing inside the bird; does not translate well to broth-based dishes, lemme tell ya.) So tonight's meal is last night's, with extra water. Yay, I suppose. At least it's fast leftover turnaround, so there's no chance of developing Nasty Fungal Growths while in Refrigerator Limbo.

I finally started assembling my knitted backpack I started last summer. I hope I can actually finish it by winter. It's Mega Man, after all; how much would it rock to actually use it? :)

The shirt that I wanted to get my brother for Christmas is no longer available in his size. Boo! I don't know whether to get a medium and hope he hasn't eaten all month, or just chalk it up as a loss and think of something else.

I just realized something

If I keep posting like this, the title of this blog will be a blatant lie! It's not nice to lie to the people, is it? So, let's just assume it's humorously ironic. Also, sooner or later, I'm going to end up posting knitting stuff in here. Maybe the knitting content will be the infrequent portion of our program.

I've been fussing with the layout a little bit. I still haven't quite figured out how to change some sections, but I'm getting there.

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To Do:
Pack for camping (self and kid)
Help boyfriend get ready to move
Go to work
Finish second sock and second glove
Clean out car