Stayed home from work.... don't really feel much better. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

No game tonight bcause too many others were also sick.

I tried to start some socks but messed them up because sick.

Weh

I'm sick :(

Slept half the afternoon. Wrote a little thing. Should be in bed. Going there now!

I had to take a reactine yesterday after cleaning out the basement, because I had hives and a million sneezes.

Today as a consequence I was an utter zombie and managed to do almost nothing productive all day. It took me three tries to remember my work phone number and write it down correctly *while I was looking at it*. I really hate the feeling, and wish I could find a good antihistamine that didn't give me the same reaction :/

Also I ate way too many snacks. But on the upside - I can touch my toes! my bed time/bus stop stretches are paying off!

Sleep now though :3

I almost went to my mammogram a day early, but it is on the 2nd, which is Wednesday, not tomorrow. whee! Bedtime now (not in my bed still though). This has been an update.

Today is a day of intense tiredness. I'd almost blame PM's but the timing is all wrong. Ugh, bodies. Ovulation, maybe? Because I need everything to get more intense, that's just peachy.

Work was fine, tomorrow is our Strategic Retreat, which is a little ominously named, especially since it has the potential to determine my future job prospects... And also the last day of filming.

We had a family meeting to talk about how we need to do better at keeping house... I guess we'll see if that has any impact.

Early bed for me I think. I'm wiped despite a mini-nap earlier.

Still busy... Mostly packed for LARP...

Of course last night I woke up at 4:30 with a stabbing pain in my back -_- It is betterish but I guess we'll see how things go.

Now reading and sleep...

I am really sock. I have a super shitty cold. I thought that I was past the leaky face bits yesterday - or the day before even - but no, they returned full force around 4 PM, after I'd booked a 10am meeting for tomorrow. I'd felt so much better this morning, but tonight my sinuses are inflamed (really visibly so - my face is red and hot to the touch), and I'm tired and my asthma is acting up. And I can't find my inhaler, it isn't in any of the places it should be /o\ I really don't want this to get in my lungs. I've been doing sinus rinses (gross but better than the alternative) but they only help so much.

Of course this happens when H&I are out of town for two weeks, so I have a lot more stuff that I need to do. No one else is going to walk the dogs or feed me :(

Ugh. I guess I'll see how I'm feeling in the morning, and if need be I can try and reschdule that meeting, but for now I'm just going to take it realllllly easy and hope for the best.

I was going to do a log of how I've been managing to feed myself, but other than Kraft Dinner yesterday I think I'll probably be okay. I can, in fact, remember how to food. I just can't taste any of it -_-

So this meeting tomorrow is to talk about cloud computing solutions for work.... it's going to be a hassle and a half. I need to talk to the campus IT people, too. I probably should have done first. This is gon' be a nightmare :p

Well, here goes I guess! Anyone know anything about cloud computing? :p

Oh oh oh!

Meanwhile, I got *THREE GIFTS* for Space Swap! And they're all excellent. I highly recommend them all :)

The Fabric of Space (4819 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cthulhu Mythos - Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Additional Tags: Blood and Gore, Alien Culture, Alien Biology
Summary:

A jaded courier discovered that there is more to life than they ever imagined

--An amazing Mythis story that play around really interestingly with the canon tropes.
---

Beefcake of Marmora Hunks Calendar (0 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 5/?
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ulaz (Voltron), Thace (Voltron), Kolivan (Voltron), Antok (Voltron)
Additional Tags: blade of marmora, Worldbuilding: Blade of Marmora - Freeform, Art, Photoshop, Calendar, Hunks, buns, man meat, it's what's for dinner, space swap 2017, Treat, Beefcake, Crack, crack art, Butts, butts for days, Galra Empire
Summary:

Hey, if you're gonna resist a 10, 000 year old empire, you're gonna need to do a little fundraising. Who could say no to these foxy freedom fighters? :D

-Galra hunks calendar! It's amazing. What more can I say :D
--

To the Champion go the rewards (2054 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Sendak/Shiro
Characters: Shiro (Voltron), Sendak (Voltron), Ulaz (Voltron)
Additional Tags: Background Matt Holt/Shiro - Freeform, Gladiators, Blood and Injury, Anal Sex
Summary:

Shiro, the Champion of the arena, is summoned to the private chamber of Commander Sendak.

--Voltron Non-con because I'm a bad bad person. But it's great! I love being in Shiro's...head >.>

Today was not my favourite day, wellnesswise. I had a LARP/Claritin hangover, plus first day bees, and mostly just slept and laid around like a miserable lump :/

That said, I did watch a lot of SW: Rebels, and we're getting close to the end of season 2 (about 4-5 more episodes). I basically know what happens but I want to see it! Hera and Kanan continue to be my favourites. I'm very confused about their relationship though. In some places it seems to be telegraphed pretty hard, but in others not. And tonight I read an old interview with Hera's VA who said as far as she knew they were not a couple - but that it might just not have been something she was told. But, like, clearly they are a couple? At first I thought it was just that they wanted to keep things sanitized for kids, so they never show either of their quarters it means never showing that they share quarters sort of thing, or that they wanted to keep it very in the background? But then there are things where there's *nothing* where there should at least be *something* - Like Hera gets severely injured and they won't show him holding her hand? Like even if they were really close friends and *not* romantically involved.... Really? (Friends, if I'm even injured and in the hospital, even if we are not romantically involved, it is okay for you to hold my hand and offer me comfort. For the record.) Anyway, it's confusing, and aggravating, because I really like how they are there for each other in lots of ways and damnit I want to see more of that!

I also watched a lot of original Voltron on Netflix.... Some of it is really painfully dated (they literally spank Allura when she tried to pilot the blue lion), but it is interesting to see things they drew on for the new show. One of the things I love that they do, and always helped garner some nostalgia feels from me, is the shots with multiple PoVs in the same shot, and the sort of fade-to-line art stuff. That was always something I associated with Voltron, and it makes me smile when I see it in the new show as well.

Anyway, sleepos time!

I made macarons! Almond with raspberry cheesecake icing. They turned out okay - I was pretty impatient with them, and my tools were not ideal. So they were too soggy in the middle. But they were damned delicious, and I have a few idea what to do differently if (when) I try them again. I blame #yuletide for getting me thinking about experimental baking. I mean, I followed a recipe for the macarons, I'd just never done them before. But the icing was all by the seat of my pants: ~1/4 C each of butter and cream cheese, a big spoonful of raspberry jam, and icing until it came together at a good consistency. I didn't measure anything super precisely, just tossed it in the kitchenaid :V It tastes amazing: A++ would make again.

I mad them because we were going to a friend's place tonight and she has gluten issues. I was going to make a simpler mint meringue cookie, but then we didn't have the mint stuff and we *did* have almonds, and at that point I figured fuck it, just go for it! They have been devoured, at home and away. We (Longpig and I) went over for tacos and boardgames, and it was a very successful evening. Tacos were delicious, I ate too much candy, and we played several different short games for small groups (4 people), which was a nice change form games for large groups that take a long time. We played Ticket to Ride (my first time), Fluxx, and Carcasonne. I also drank a lot of rum and ginger, and ate waaaay too much candy.

Other than that, I played a lot with the kids today. We played pirates, and raided the granola bars, which was extra great because we weren't supposed to but also it was harmless ;) OTOH there was a lice scare in the littlest's class, and he has some sign so now I'm very much freaking out about that. For those who don't know me/have never seen pics, I have waist length hair... I'll get someone to check for me tomorrow - it really needed a good washing first. Here's hoping...

Despite being awake and staring at my computer until almost 3 AM yesterday, I somehow managed not to make an entry. I am really bad at making and keeping habits. I am totally the person who will do something everyday for a year and then just miss it one day with no reason. I wonder about my brain sometimes :p Sometimes I wish you could just get brain scans or whatever without having a specific need, just to have a baseline for comparison. But that would be pointlessly expensive. And there are people in my life who need them for more legit reasons :/ I admit I am sometimes paranoid that there is something wrong and it just hasn't been noticed yet, but I know that is not really rational. If there was a real problem, I would know by now, not just wonder. Everyone's body does weird things from time to time, so I shouldn't get all hypochondriac, especially when I have seen what more serious symptoms look like.

Anyway.

Yesterday was decently interesting. I didn't get to scan anything, but I did compile exit surveys from the VR exhibit. It gave me surprising feels! Partly to see the number of older women (over 40 and over 60) who'd tried it and loved it. They said a range of heartening things, like that ii was immersive, that if gave them a sense of emotional and spiritual connection to the history, that they were pleased to be able to participate in this wave of new technology, and so forth. I am also amused at the mid-twenties dudes complaining that the vive headset was too heavy when women old enough to be their grandmothers were all 'no complaints, it felt fine!' It was nice to be even tangentially involved in the project, anyway. And I did a minor bit of tech supporting for the equipment while I was there as well.

Then last night, among other things, I was knitting, and managed to work the tip off one of my Karbonz, because of course I did. I'm pretty sure these are the ones I already had to replace (my US 4's). But maybe I'm using my 5's? Anyway, this is a new issue, but also a resolvable one. I just superglued it back on. Luckily I was near the end of the row. If I didn't love everything else about these needles so much I would probably stop buying them. But honestly I think the problem is me :p Meanwhile, have a pic of my work in progress on this scarf!

( Pic! )

This morning I got dinner in the crock pot, then has my "post-board review" with the HR person from PC. It was informative, mostly in the sense that it confirmed a lot of stuff for me that I suspected. i am terrible at having examples, and need to elaborate more on my answers, and take more cues from the questions. In these kinds of interviews, they aren't allowed to prompt for further explanations, so it is all on me and how I answer things. It seems like on some of the most-relevant questions I did quite well, but fell down in a few key areas. Part of having not great examples is a matter of experience, and part of it is not being vicious enough to past employers, and part of it is not being able to explain myself well when I do. As I said, it was helpful, if a little depressing. They interviewed less than ten people, though and since it was an open call I know that to make it that far I had to pass a lot of benchmarks. But in the end, I didn't even make it into the hiring pool, let alone make it to the top. Ugh. He was very encouraging though, and aid I should definitely continue to apply for other collections type positions with the agency. I'll keep an eye out, but they don't come up that often :p Meanwhile, I hope I didn't screw up my SA interview as badly. Ugh. At least they *know* I'm awesome. Right?

There than that I managed to get some laundry started, change the sheets on my bed, and do some general room tidying. I might try to put up the poster I got from the art show on my wall... I have the print tacked up just to get it out of the way, but I'd really like to get it framed. I'll keep an eye out for something nice for it. karanguni asked my for a pic, and I took one - it isn't super great, because the print is in a plastic sleeve and there is some glare, but it gives a pretty good idea!

( The Cat by Justin Erickson )

I have a bunch of other things I'd like to do today - mostly writing stuff, at this point. I did my EI report and subsequent phone call, but was only on hold for about 15 min this time, so not too bad. And I should go switch the laundry too... But I want to touch up my chocolate box, and work on the Thirteen story and maybe do some other little chocolate box thing? We'll see how my afternoon/evening goes, I guess.