elanya

This is one of those entries i am probably going to have to force myself to post rather than just delete. But I haven't posted anything in 5 days, as I've been away. I did write some paper journal entries on...less than half...of those days. Ugh. I had good intentions, I just didn't have a lot of time to myself, and not a lot of emotional energy.

The service was nice - an informal drop-in sort of thing for people to come see the family and such. I think it was a lot more work for them emotionally, especially Cat's mother and grandfather, than they probably needed. Just a lot of people to talk to and so on. I saw a few people I hadn't seen or talked to in years, and met some more relatives and co-workers. There were pictures up, and some figurines we'd brought from his house, and a slide show of pictures. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Diplomat, which is a 24hour Chinese-Canadian restaurant where we used to make many a late night foray. They did some renovations to the place since we used to be there all the time, but it was the same as the last time we went as a group which was about 2011. the food was pretty much the same, though they have really changed their soup portions and now they are huuuuge. This restaurant is responsible for my disappointment that sweet and sour chicken doesn't come as battered chicken balls everywhere. They also have some pretty good cakes and cheesecakes, though they didn't have the one that Pretentia wanted.

It was really really nice to see her, and to be there for her. She and Cat were closer than siblings in a lot of ways, and I know she is totally devastated. She is also closer to the family, and has been helping Cat's mother with a lot of things. I did go up to his place a few times with her, and we checked in on the kitties (so fat.... so so so fat), changed their litter, fed them, petted them. We did some nominal tidying to start (some had already been done), but I ran a load of dishes through the dish washer, and such. I compiled some notes from IRC friends who has messaged him there before he fell offline (;_;) for his mother, and took down some information about some other servers where he may have spent time so I can let people there know as well. I think all the major place have been contacted though. His mother has basically given us (his friends/online friends) leave to deal with his computer/online things as we see fit, but unfortunately it isn't all that simple, as there is money and authority involved, and as the executor of his estate, there will be things she has to handle at least initially. Things like pics accounts set to automatically renew, and his websites and all of that :/ I made sure to upload some of his one page sites into the wayback machine, and will probably let them go. But the wiki we have used for our games for the past ten years is in his name, and that needs to get sorted out. I also tried to copy the dice rolling script that he wrote and that we used for a lot of out online games..... but I can't get it to work :( I really want to have that available still, as something that he made for us.

Anyway. I flew back to Ontario on Monday night, into Hamilton, then drove an hour and a half to London, and then left again for Windsor, where I am now. I'd told Nary I would come spend a few days with her when I got back, since she couldn't come to the memorial, so here I am. I wish I had brought my dog though. I miss her fuzzy face - someone else's dog s not *quite* the same, even if they are a very nice giant fluffball, as Argo is. I also feel guilty because I had originally told my sister that I would go with her when she went to get her tattoo today (and then leave early to get the kids after school), but there was some miscommunication about the fact that I was going *and* I had completely forgotten that it was this week (despite remembering last week? I don't know, my brain has been a mess). And I don't know, I'm just feelign very stressed out.

I had a lot of stressy dreams last night, mostly Larp-contexted. I think probably because I realized that I am missing an event this weekend that I had hoped to get to, as it seemed like a nice casual opportunity to rp, and the single day events are generally easier for me to get to, so meh. But it was a lot of things like.... my tent was covered in giant angry bees/hornets that were also dying, so I couldn't get into it and then I had to be careful, I'd forgotten all my gear, or had gear for the wrong character, or I tried to borrow stuff from my sister without asking and she was cranky with me (deservedly). I don't remember them super clearly, because I kept waking up in the middle of the night (or partly waking), and then trying to go back to sleep, so it is more like a string of snippets I only half remember than anything coherent. The tent was exactly my tent from my last summer at the buttermilk excavation, when I borrowed Brad's tent, set in the same copse of trees and covered with a tarp sunshade in the same way. The bees/hornets were the length of my palm. I could probably describe some of the larp clothes I had and didn't have. One of the characters I had was entirely a dream fabrication, and they wore this cool leather dress/bodysuit sort of thing that was so unique I couldn't wear it for my real character (Zia). I don't remember anything else about them.

I have things I should be doing, and things I could be doing, and I'm not doing anything. On the one hand it is nice to have some alone time, on the other hand, I am missing having my own space today. It is grey and blah out and I basically feel the same way. I feel like I'm living in other people's lives without actually living my own, and I feel frustrated and tired and stuck. But I also want to be left alone, and not have to talk to anyone unless I want to. Meh. I'm going to do some knitting and see if I feel any better after that.

I've just been away for about 10 days on a road trip down to visit friends from Texas... We used to do our friend-con in March, but the reasons for that timing are no longer pertinent and it took a while to reorganize. But it was great, on the whole. There was some social weirdness going on from some corners, but whatever. I am really glad and grateful that I got to see those folks again! And the games and gaming were really fun!

I'll write up some drabbles for the ones I played in, as is tradition, but I'm only home in the sense of being back in my own country. I have a French test - step one in a potentially lengthy interview process - to go to on Thursday, so I'm staying in Windsor, since it is closer to the testing facility. I might work on some tomorrow between bouts of studying.

I have some scattered thoughts for stories of various lengths, the most recent inspired by the slew of paranormal story podcasts we were listening to for part of the drive. We'll see if anything comes of those.

Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving. I hadn't thought to do much for it, but there were turkeys on sale last week for pretty cheap, and I got one for about $10! So I have invited some people over, and am about to go make pies (pumpkin and apple) now. I'm also planning to have mashed potatoes, squash, and green beans. and, uh, maybe cranberry sauce - I meant to get cranberries - I even had them on the list! - but realized when I got to the checkout yesterday that I did not have them. But then I remembered that I had some in the freezer! But then it turns out I have half a bag in the freezer :/ So we'll see - I could try and go to the store, only it is game day so the buses aren't running and everything's going to be busy, and it is also raining, etc. So... we'll see re: cranberries >.> I'll at least sauce up what I've got!

We also have a house guest coming in tonight - a friend of lukoni who is coming in to watch the football game and needed a place to crash. which means I need to decamp from the couch - the horror :V

Good thing I'm going to be spending so much time in the kitchen ^-^

And don't forget - tomorrow is zorm day - the day of cheap candy :D

I was late getting to bed, and late getting up, so I still need to take a shower before I can lave the house, but I will live. I had a really awesome weekend!

Saturday, I went with a small mob of Anthro grad students to try out the Stover Bro's/Boys cafe/deli counter place in the Village Foods. It was amazingly delicious! One of the best burgers i'd ever had ever! Then I went and made Alannah Myles cupcakes. They were supposed to be red velvet, but were too dark. however, they *were* delicious, and very rich and moist. I uses a traditional recipe that called for beets (the second recipe on this page). I would do it again for sure, but I might leave out the cocoa powder and see how that affects the redness/taste. I just made my normal cream cheese icing, also, which is just a 1/2 C stick of butter, an 8oz brick of cream cheese, a splash of vanilla, and 3 C of icing sugar.

I wound up having to go to target to get a new hand mixer, and picked up a cupcake carrying tray thing as well. Since it came with a muffin pan, I can now bake 2 dozen at once, wooh! I took the cupcakes to movie night, where we watched Sushine (cool sci-fi thing), and the rifftrax of the new Clash of the Titans (painfully hilarious!).

Sunday morning, I went to the dog park with Jola, Lucy and Zap. Also, Merc and Jessie ;) It was awesome - a ridiculously nice day after all the cold we'd been having. The dogs ran around, I ran around, we sat in the sun and chatted, and all was generally speaking well with the world. I think we stayed for close to two hours! That afternoon was the planned trip out to WC mercantile with Zari, Ella, and Josh, where I picked up the yarn I need to finish my shawl. they didn't have the colour I wanted (a particular orange) for the middle section, so I wound up getting a variegated one that is closer to the rest of it. It will still be very pretty, but maybe a little subtler. And less orange, but you can't have everything ;) Ella also got some nice yarn to make a top she's been wanting to do, and Zari picked up a silk cap (a gorgeous golden yellow that perfectly matched the dress she was wearing), and immediately started knitting with it even though it hasn't been spun yet, because that's how she rolls. She also showed off the crazy-ass German lace thing she is knitting (if you can call it knitting when she is using thread), and there was much deserved oooh-ing and ahhh-ing, Okay, really, the clerk took it away from her and ran off to show all her friends ;)

Following that, we went to Koppe Barn, where I had a chicken sandwich, they still have the best fried ever though, nom nom nom. A weekend for fried greasy food, but whatcha gonna do? It was good times. We sat outside in the sun and spoke bad words around small children, on account of we are bad people -_- After that, I went home to walk JJ and had a nap.

And then it was time to get organized for game :D We have been working on starting up a Firefly game for a month or so now, and this was our first session. We wound up playing at my house, because I have a large kitchen and a table we can all fit around pretty easily, which worked out really well and I think helped keep us focused and more on track. Although one player couldn't make it (Shelby :( ) it still ran really well. I really like all the characters, people seemed to get into their roles pretty fast (omg I love the hell out of my character soooo much!), and we are aiming for an episodic feel to things (in terms of story stricture as well as general plot), and Josh really pulled it off swimmingly. A very promising first session. We even had a teaser opening and flashbacks! Fantastic!

I then stayed up too late chatting with folks after game, which was great, but now it is almost 9:30 and I still need that shower.... :D

Despite my lack of sleep, though, I feel pretty mentally refreshed and am in a great mood, so I have high hopes of a productive day despite my slow start ^-^ Maybe I will even remember to mail that solo to C....

Happy Birthday Kitkat! :D I hope you're off having a blast!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR ATTOURNEY AT LOL!

I hope it is made of seven different kinds of epic win and bewbs.

:D

I sent you an email, but..... you have a virus, or a spyware, or your hotmail account has been haxxored by spammers -_-

Happy birthday, Buck! Hope it is a good one!

Transform and roll out! ^-^

happy Birthday Rob :D you're the best! :D

Miscommunication with the mattress people yesterday - it was raining too hard for deliveries yesterday, but I didn't realize that they don't do them until after 5. So I waited all day at home until 3:30.... I couldn't call them because I didn't have a number for them -_-

I did work! And had solos! And all was well.

Then Claire called! And all was even better :V Although we had interruptions because that's when the mattress came, of course >_< But it was good to hear that she has not, in fact, fallen off the face of the planet. Hooray! She left me to take in the Supernatural premiere, then called me 20 min in to let me know that the show had fangirls writing Wincest slash as part of the plot. That fandom is *insane* and someday, someone is goign to get shot by a crazy person. That is my prediction.

Anyway! Bed Drama! I actually have an antique frame, which is 3/4 size. I thought that was the same as a fiull, but apparently not! Or, also possible, memory foam mattrsses do not conform to old bed standards. Point being - the new mattress was too big! Fortunately i am a clever girl and quickly devise a solution. I will finally get around to aking slats for the frame, and the bed can rest on top of this. Genius! It actually stabilizes the frame more too - I have been meaning to do it for like 3 moves :p. So I begged a favour from Brad (as he has a big-ish SUV) to help me get lumber, and then cut down some 2x4's, and lay them across the frame. Success!

My bed is GIANT. the top of it is 3 feet off the floor. This is due in part to the slats, and in part due to the fact that the mattress and box (I don't wanna call it a box spring because I don't think there are any springs :V) are thicker (!). And also because I want to be extra indulgent in my princess-and-the-pea way, so I put the memory foam topper I got last year on top of the memory foam mattress. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

I hope to sleap like a dream tonight - i even found a *good* allergy pill (yay allegra) stashed away. The best would be no allergies, but that isn't in the card, I don't think.

What is in the cards is an early bed, hopefully :) My back is sore from all the sawying ;p