I slept on the couch in the basement last night and probably will again tonight. My bed still smells like pee, but less like pee.... Wererogue ordered a vat of nature's miracle, but if I get impatient I will probably just stop at the pet store and get some tomorrow, because it wont be here until Tuesday, maybe? Sometimes Amazon is faster than advertised. Though I've still never gotten my Raksura book (I read Nary's copy). Not that I really have room for it on my shelf anyway. But now I have emailed them again because this is ridiculous.

Anyway! Game today was great, though my character gained another 'madness'. I now have ...five. I'm not sure what this one will be, but at least I'm not the only one losing it any more - our swashbuckler is startng to pick some up too. If my sanity ever drops below half I'm going to be gibbering in a corner, but apparently my thighs are still dreamy enough that Longpig's character would still maybe marry him ;p It was a really good session, anyway.

I also got some dyeing done. I don't think I have enough yellow left for another row of my larp shawl, so I took the stuff I'd tried to dye with a fairly exhausted walnut bath and put it in a fresh, much more intense walnut bath! I simmered it for a while and am leaving it to soak overnight. I'll take it out tomorrow and see how it looks then.

Now I'm just lazing. I should write on my galra exchange fic but I'm still just so tired :| Early bed for sure.

So busy! I have so muuuch to get done in the next few days ahhhhh!

And I spent most of my night hand winding a ball of yarn because ???? Reasons.

Also, Jola went to the vet for a check up, and it was not great. She is borderline for kidney disease, and she has arthritis in her hips and spine. So she needs a low protein diet, and fish oil, and love (always). Oh, and a urine test. Fun. My baby dog isn't allowed to be old :( (she's 9). And with blood testing and xrays (at least she doesn't have kidney stones or any tumors) and all her shots and such it was *expensive* to find this all out, too. Pleh.

Another not-super productive day, though I did manage to wake up early. Tomorrow at the museum should be good - I at least have things to do, which is always better than me trying to find things to work on. I did some more writing and got my sister to look it over and assure me that it is comprehensible and interesting. Woohoo! I've got a better handle on the plot now too, and things are Moving Forward.

Tonight was knit night, which is always nice. It can be a bit like introvert club, depending who is around, where we mostly just sit quietly together and work on our own things we meet at the boardgame café in town, and it can be fun to listen to other people. There were some folks playing a game called... um... battlesomething? Superfight? I forget, shoot, because it looks like a ton of fun. The basic gist from what i could tell is that everyone drawn an adjective and a non card, and then you argue for who would win in a fight, with the person whose 'turn' it is arbitrating. There is some way of modifying things as well. It seemed like it would be awesome with a group who was sufficiently creative and ready to go to bat for their weird ideas (50 moose vs internet trolls, google vs the grim reaper, etc).

In terms of actual knitting, I got most of the heelflap re-done on my sock. I can finish that and probably get the heel turn started on the bus tomorrow if I opt to knit (I probably will). I'm sort of sick of knitting them at this point, though.

Maze was about catting around a lot today. I coaxed him out when the kids were playing video games in the morning, and after he sat with me, he decided to follow me around the house, Sierra was closed in Longpig's room, and kittyface was being sufficiently cute that she left Sierra there after she got up, and he hug out causing minor kitty mischief all morning and part of the afternoon. Apparently he can't tell the difference between mint and catnip. I also managed not to have a major allergy attack while petting/playing with him, though my hand is still red and itchy where he scratched me (my fault, I couldn't resist the belly...)

I mentuioned that we've been having some animal adjustments noqw that I've moved in with longpig and wererogue... especially as regards Maze, my kitty.

We have a set up where the laundry room is latched so he can get out, but the door won't close all the way, so it won't close *on* him. The dog and kids can't get out, so it gives him somewhere to be safe that he can retreat to, but can come out and explore when he's feeling safe.

We've also been leaving the downstairs door open at night. Two nights ago, he came up in to my room to snuggle with me at night, and I escorted him back downstairs in the morning. It was lovely to have him sleeping on my feet again!

This morning.... wererogue woke me up because he was out in the back garden @_@ We must have left the patio door cracked open to let in the cool air, and then the kids closed it this morning. I have no idea how long he was gone for - I assume it was after we all went to bed around 1, but before the kids were up at 6:30. The garden isn't closed off by any means, and there are other animals in the neighborhood...

I'm glad he is chipped and has all his outdoor shots, and that he CAME BACK but D: Scary!

We're going to have to be a little more careful.

A little update for anyone interested.

This last week it feels like I have accomplished very little. Last weekend I ran the first bit of my the "one shot" I prepped fro Webercon for some people online. Because everything takes at least twice as long online, I got through about half of it. If anyone is curious you can see the lead in and the log here. Only the first log is actually extant, though. I need to schedule the second bit.

Sunday night, a bunch of friends tested a new online version of Cards Against Humanity (Cards Against Originality). The site claims that you need to be in the same room, but what they actually mean is that you need to be in voice contact. We played over Skype and it worked wonderfully, with only a few little connection hiccups.

Monday I did some solo RP scenes for Diablotin, Tuesday I focused on some Wrangling Staff stuff (and tried and failed miserably to get a good connection to naryrising so we could watch the last episode of season 1 of Peaky Blinders, bah). Wednesday was usual datenight shenanigans. Last night I played Arkham Horror (and we defeated Yog Sothoth, but barely).

So I did some things, and some of them were even productive in some sense, but I feel like I have been avoiding some other pretty major things that are coming at me fairly soon. I have decided (I think) that I am going to get rid of my furniture when I leave the US, and try and just take Stuff with me, and take a hard look at my Stuff and offload a lot of it locally if I can. I need to start packing things and sorting things. I need to figure out how to ship things, and to where. I need to figure out where I am going, and when, and how I, and my two animals, are going to get there. I need to go through stuff i my storage unit and decide what I want to keep from that stuff, and I need to start craigslisting or otherwise offloading stuff I want to get rid of. I have a lot of files of stuff that at this point I am ready to check that I was previously holding on to, but can now go. But I also have a lot of weird stuff I want to keep for Reasons that might need closer examination. I also have other Stuff I should do, like get some doctor stuff done, see what shots Jola needs, and Maze needs, look into... flying? with them? I don't have a plan, but I should be making one. Meeeeeh :|

Meanwhile, I have a meeting tonight, I have game on Sunday, I have two trope bingo stories I want to get one (one half done, one not started, lol), and I got my Jukebox assignment yesterday too.... I think I can actually knock that out *relatively* easily though, as I have decided what I want to do for it already :) Now if I could only manage to do any of these things without feeling *toooo* guilty... Or swinging the other way and feeling too defiantly indulgent :p

At least I'm ahead of schedule (again) at work? Huzzah. I should probably keep on top of that :p

( The first part of this entry is cut for animal-related TMI! )

And that was the night of the Rat :p The family should be home in the next few hours, and before that I have some more cleaning/tidying to do:

Bed Laundry - in the washer - last load in the dryer = done enough
Clean my bathroom
Trash
dishes (wash hand dishes, deal with dishwasher) - about to start this, then maybe I will take the dogs out for a short walk? No walk, timing too uncertain.
vacuum the couch and chair where there have been illegal dogs.

I've already swept the floors and started consolidating my things, but I have more things to consolidate as yet.

Better get cracking, so off I go!

Now I wait... Until tomorrow. I got my dates wrong -_-

So, Tuesday I start my house sitting gig for the Crismans, which technically makes this the last Saturday i will be at home all day for a while. So probably there is some shit I should do this weekend, hmm?

Here is a short list:
Clean out the fridge
Vaccuum
Laundry
Pack

I am also working on my Jukebox fic, which is coming along very nicely. I'm quite happy with it so fa, anyway, and I don't think it is going to balloon ridiculously - it should probably be around 5000 words, which seems about right. I have been trying to be careful about section lengths, and that seems to be working out well. A lot of times I'll start with short sections, and then my middle bits will get all super long and structurally it just winds up a bit messy. I think I have a better handle on that so far here though! I have some scened that I expect will be longer (climax scene!), but that's okay too. After I'm done with it, there is a treat I want to do, maybe, if I can keep it short. And maybe some drabbles again, because that was super fun last year!

Anyway - I should go do *something* rather than just reading random crap on the internet all day. Tomorrow I am going over to the Crismans with Jola and a friend who will hopefully be taking over the house-sitting for me while I'm away in August. I'm very much looking forward to getting away form here for a bit, and to actually visiting my dad when it is nice enough to go outside!

Zorm day comes but thrice a year - it is the Day After Candy Sale Holiday. It is celebrated after Valentine's Day, Easter, and Hallowe'en.

Zorm is the sound one makes when one wishes to be given candy. repetition of the word is often combined with the action known as "grabby hands". This action is not typically successful, but it is tradition within certain narrow cultural circles nonetheless.

Zorms are, of course, candy. Zorm day is all about candy.

Building up the mythology of Zorm Day has psychological merit, in that it provides justification for the acquisition of large candy and chocolate hordes. It also justifies the efforts one might go to acquire such a horde.

This year, Post-Valentine's Zorm Day fell on a Saturday. I took Jola on a Very Long Walk to get to the Walgreens on Texas Avenue, which is the great Zorm Mecca. They have the best deals on leftover candy - everything goes on 50% straight off (hisses at Target), and they have a pretty good selection (hisses at HEB). Kroger was also pretty good when I lived closer to it, but it is quite a way out of the way for me now. Although that said it is only a few blocks away from the Wallgreens, I suppose. But anyway! I walked about 2.5 miles just to get some candy, ayup. ZORM DAY!

Today, of course, is Post-Easter Zorm day. I worked, but had hopes there would still be some zormable zorms! I also had a bunch of errands I needed to run - pick up Jola's county tag and her frontline, get some groceries and my acid reflux meds which I have been out of for almost a week now, ugh.

Clearly, fitting in a trip to Zorm Mecca was going to be worth the extra effort, even though it is about 3-4 blocks out of my way, considering that the vet is a block away from the grocery store (and its inferior zorms). I considered and reconsidered my route, and eventually decided to do a short circuit - vet, Wallgreens, HEB. With bus at either end and about a block walk home at the very end. This worked out pretty well - knowing that I was planning a zormspedition, I brought a pair of shorts to wear for the walk rather than the skirt I'd worn to work (because thigh chafe ;_;). I got off a stop later than I really should have for the vet and had to back track a bit, but everything else was fine. I got so many zorms - I'm well stocked for a while. I can also report that both Wallgreens and HEB have a crapton of Cadbury's Cream Eggs. I only got two - one for me and one for tethys123 - but Walgreens had one box full, and HEB (which had basically nothing else) had like three. I think this was about 1.5 miles, all told, but some of that was carrying shit, so that counts for more right? :V Anyway, it was not even 6 when I got to HEB, which I think is pretty impressive considering the bis didn't leave campus until about 5:07. I got home closer to 7, maybe around 6:45? But that was time shopping but waiting for the bus.

Most of my zorm haul is Russel Stover eggs of various kinds (the beeeest), plus the big cream eggs, two packages of the little cream eggs, some chocolate bunnies, a big bag of filled eggs. My biggest disappointments, in order was that I didn't score any: mini eggs (which were hard to find before easter too!), raspberry RS eggs, coconut RS eggs. Weh! I also finally got myself a new pair of sunglasses. Hopefully I won't lose or break these ones, or accidentally leave them in a other country :V

The zorms should last me quite a while - fear not, they are not for immediate consumption. And if properly requested, they may even be shared!

I woke up early with all these *plans* and then I sat down at the computer and now it is going on three hours later. Bah!

I had some ideas for pirate-meta that I want to write up. In addition to talking about Black Sails, I may be going to do some conversational narration stuff for an Assassins Creed IV Let's Play with my bro-in-law. I have some things I'd like to talk about for the show though specifically - anyone have any preferences as to whether I talk first about Ships, or Wrecking?

I also had some ideas for what to do with my dissertation, article wise, which is that i want to write something that is looking more just at "here is what i can tell you about Harbour Island from the archaeology I did" and leave the big question theory for something else. I did some outlining while it was still in my brain, but it is hard for me not to hop into the theory >.>

I also had an anxiety dream last night that I was totally unprepared to run the LARP I want to do for Webercon. I don't think that it was really *about* the larp, per sey, though I do need to start working on it more seriously, but more about how I am a social fraud, and of course my RL friends mostly only tolerate me, some of them actively dislike me, etc. although the people who didn't like me in the dream were not relatable to actual real people, though there were actual real people that I know appearing in the dream, so that's something :p Either I don't know who doesn't really like me or they don't exist, I'm not sure. Even in the dream I was more concerned about the people I did know being disappointed, I think? Anyway, I am really a fairly confident person, but I'm also terrible at socializing with people. I don't participate in conversations the same way, or something? I don't know. I played pool with some t=friends on Thursday and despite it being people I know I was mostly quiet while other folks were chatty, and it left me feeling a little marginal and I think this has affected my subconscious. Which I almost wrote as 'self conscious'. Oh, brain, you ain't subtle :p I do think that I am *differently* socially awkward than most of my friends, and that does make it hard for us to connect sometimes.

Anyway, I *should* start working on something. I have other things I'd like to do today, or at least this weekend, as well, like laundry, baking, maybe even *shock* tidying my room.... I can find the floor, sure, but everything else is covered in things (mostly clothes and paper) that need to be put away :p

Oh and in other fun news, we definitely have a pipe issue of some kind in the bathtub. we thought it was water getting on the floor (for a variable configuration of 'we'), but it happened (or, at least, I noticed) again today and that was definitely not the case. I emailed lukoni but I'm really not sure what the best solution is going to be :/ No showers, anyway, I suspect, until we have a better idea what's going on. Yay?

In other mild annoyances, I ordered yarn for my sweater the other day, but the company emailed to let me know that they didn't have enough skeins in the same dyelot (I had asked for them all to be the same). They were really super nice about it and offered to backorder, but that was going to take eight weeks+! (Not their fault, that's just malabrigo for you >.>). I cancelled the yarn, but am still getting needles from them, and am now yarnhunting elsewhere. Even though they didn't have what I wanted I was really pleased with their customer service and will definitely be looking at getting other things through them again.

To end on a high note, though, I did at least get my prompts all finished for the Invisible Ficathon, and I am very happy with all of them! Now I just need to finalize my offers... Aftwer I go out and get some kitty litter!

I had a very full sounding day that still included a lot of sitting around on the couch doing very little.

I got my roomie to help me take my cat to the vet in the morning to get some shots (though I realize I forgot to pick up Jola's flea and heartworm stuff - d'oh!), then treated myself to Subway for lunch ($5 footlongs :V). In the afternoon I had an interview for Tag Wrangling Staff, which I think went really well, and officially the longest interview I have ever had for anything. But computer stuff goes slower by its nature. I think it went really well though, and now I wait for them to finish other interviews and hear back from Volcom :3

After that it was minor hose things, like cleaning the cat box and doing dishes. Excite! I am working on weaving in the ends on my Night Vale socks, but there are a lot of them and I am not very good at it yet, especially where there is a lot of pattern to deal with. And there are 6-8 ends per sock :( I have four done in total. I think the ones on the toes were the worst though, and I did both of those. They were knit in black yarn on size 0 needles and I have a very tight gauge, so they are tiny and impossible to see. the advantage is that the fabric is so tight that I don't think it would be noticeable at all if I fucked it up (which I surely did >.>) If I remember tomorrow I'll bring my ruler downstairs and tell you the stitches per inch so you can shake your heads at me ;p But for reference, I was comparing gauge with tethys123 and to get the gauge she has on 0's, I would have to go up probably at least two needle sizes. The purple ends I have done were definitely easier. Never knitting in black on 0's again @_@

Tonight, other than end weaving, I watched another episode of Person of Interest with naryrising - now up to s1e5 :D I'm really enjoying it so far and I hear it keeps getting better, so score!

Gonna try and finish weaving in ends tomorrow, and if I do i will cast on my firelight vest. I also meant to clip Jola's toenails and somehow she escaped that fate for now! The other thing I would like to do if I have time/don't spend all day knitting and gaming, is to start working on background stuff for my changeling LARP that I am going to run at this year's Webercon. Because I am a masochist, or something @_@