Wandering Wednesday

Today I was supposed to have another day at my site in Albany. Well, yesterday when we were wrapping up, I was told that they wouldn't be able to have anyone tomorrow. I said that it was no problem, we'd either bill them for just the two days we did or reschedule the third day for sometime in January.
This meant I had today mostly free. My only real job today was to drive from Albany to the Binghamton area. Mind you, that drive is all of about 2.5 hours.
I got a start sometime around 10 am after everything was said and done. I didn't really push it on my way. I did end up going about 10 miles the wrong direction at one point, but that's OK. You've got to read all of an exit sign to make sure it's the right one. Oops. Nice little drive though.
I got to the area about 12:30 or so. I get off at the exit for my hotel and see a mall and a Friendly's. I decide to eat lunch at the Friendly's.
After lunch I was feeling adventurous and go t the mall to try that epic jeans quest again. Well, the first store was a bust. Again, why do designers think that 'stretch' means 'miracle fabric' and that even though I have a large waist, I have no legs? I'm sorry, but I'm a real woman and that means I have real curves, not just a fat stomach. I swear, there was absolutely no difference in the two sizes I tried.
Well, Gak calls at this point to see how I was doing and where I was. I let him know what was up. He said he was going to not say anything and try and stay out of trouble on that one. I appreciated the thought, but told him it was OK, he was safe as he wasn't a clothing designer.
I then try the second store. One I've had some success at in the past, but then they changed styles on me. Well, I tried again just for grins and giggles. Well, guess what, I found a pair. They don't fit perfectly. I really could have used something somewhere between the size I bought and the next size bigger. The other size fit better through the legs, but there was just something wonky about the rise and the waist was way big. They were even in my price range, which in all honestly isn't much. I refuse to pay a lot of money for something, especially for something that feels cheesy. These jeans even seem to be made out of real denim, not the flimsy 'fashion denim' that most are made of these days. Hey, I'm hard on my stuff, it needs to be able to stand up to the torture.
Checking into the hotel was also a bit of an adventure. I had canceled and changed my reservation for the hotel for the first half of the week shortly after I made it because of the wrong dates. Well, the web site canceled this reservation as well. Huh?? Why was it on my itinerary then? Who knows. Luckily they had a room for me. They weren't sure that the would as they are in the process of repainting the hotel.
Since it is all of about 3:00 at this point, I decide to head over to the plant to drop off the books and say hi to Andy, my contact. I'm literally 5 minutes from the site if I hit all the lights right, 10 if I don't. That was nice to head over there and set up without being stressed.
To cap off my adventures today I went to Wegmans. For those who don't know, Wegmans is a grocery store. I hadn't been in one, even though there's one somewhere near where I live. It's fabulous. There's an entire organic and wholefoods section in the store. It's like taking a 'normal' grocery store and adding a Trader Joe's inside. I wandered around for about an hour. I had popped in there to pick up some drinks for the room and the ride home Friday. I found some neat 'Juiced Teas' by Tazo there. Herbal iced teas with lots of fruit juice. The one I'm drinking now is quite tasty and refreshing.
I am a little dissapointed in myself this week though. I haven't been to the gym yet. I tried yesterday, but they were still closed for the lunch break when I went there and I got distracted today. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

I did get news about my grandmother this evening from my mom. Today Gram was supposed to have a procedure done to check out the connection between bladder and kidney. Well, it turns out that the doctor put a stent in while she was in surgery, so it can't be done as an in-office procedure. This made her feel much better in a way, because she'd been having pain and thought it was the cancer. Nope, just a stent. She's also moving back into her own apartment over the weekend. This is great news. It means she's strong enough to be on her own. She also went to an acting class today. She thought she was just going to go and sit and listen.... Well, I know she must be feeling much better because of course, she just couldn't sit there once she got there. *laugh* My gram is such a people person and so friendly. I feel much better knowing that she's interacting and being social. This means she is truly feeling a bit better about the world.
So, as of now, we don't know anything new. We're on hold until December 15th, when she's going to have the procedure done in the hospital. She's feeling a lot better and more at ease and alive again.

Peace to all and may your off days turn into adventures of the fun kind!

Story Time

Training today went well, in a semi-chaotic way. It was a very free form kind of class, but I think it went well. There were several good questions and discussions of why things were done and how things affected this plant.
I also finally got to meet one of my long time customers. She's a riot and a trip and a true Northern Jersey native. I like her much more in person that I do dealing with her over the phone.

Anyhow, I think last night I promised you a story. A story of daring ratling adventure with her wonderful troll and other friends.
Well, here it is.

Sunday morning I get up and procrastinate doing anything about leaving. So what do I do, but log in to the computer. Our friend Syn is online and so is Rodentia. The four of us decide that we were going to explore Mistmore Catacombs. As we were gathering, who would happen to log in but our friend Kasias, who is another healer. I'm always game to have another healer along. Sure enough, he was up for the adventure of the morning as well. While waiting for him to show up, our friend Charitee shows up in her wizzy disguise of Omim, the gnome. Cool. now we have a full group of 6, including two big time damage dealers and a troll of a tank.
We finally get out act together and head out to the catacombs. For some reason we can't seem to follow the direction of 'stay close' that morning so kept breaking the sneaking cloak that Rodentia has over us. That's ok, we survived.
We make it to the catacombs and a few people pick up the various quests at the entrance way. We then sneak around a bit and explore the lower level. Rat-man has been here before and says that the zone's not really all that big and we were safe using sneak on the first level, but the guys up top could see through.
Mind you, we were on Vent as well as in the game so it was much easier to have conversations.
We explore a bit, tackle a couple of large groups of mobs (remember that problem with staying close....). Then the Rat-man finds a named critter on tracking, so up the walls we go. We decide that the bad guy commander must go. And go he did. And he had some nice things in his possession. They promptly became ours.
Well, Rodentia decided to log because he wanted to take his lady mouse out to breakfast. (Hey, living in Key West, I would too....) That's when he tells us that the zone's not really that big. We looked at the map and saw that sure enough, it looks like we'd been most places.
We pick up another healer. I call him Phred, but his name is really Phaedrus or something like that. Phred works better. Kas was our climbable wall finder that day. Boy are we glad he found this wall.
After climbing this wall, we found some new areas on the map and kept going up. Eventually we end up in what appears to be the sub-basements of Mistmore Castle. The area is huge!
To make a long story shorter, there was much mayhem (including about a half minute or so where Gak and I lost power completely to the apartment) and much loot to be had. We actually ended up with better loot and much more of it in about 2 hours that morning than we had found as a full raid in about 4 hours the night before.
We had fun, but we ended up in a fight we probably wouldn't win, so I pulled the plug and evacuated us to the front. We decided that this would be a good time to take a break.

I have found that adventuring with a group of friends, both in the game world and especially in real life is lots of fun. There's nothing quite like getting lost, or walking or driving for hours with friends talking and enjoying life and whatever happens. Maybe that's why I love orienteering so much. I haven't done anywhere near as much this year as I have the last two. I blame most of this on my travel schedule. Not directly really, since I'm usually home on a Sunday, but indirectly. Because of how much time I've spent away in recent months, the last thing I want to do on a Sunday is get moving early. I'm usually awake early, but not really in the mood for moving. I'm also so mentally exhausted, that I can't think my way through the courses. I feel really bad about it, since I have several friends I only see on the O-trails. Maybe come spring I'll feel more mentally alive for it. I've been so exhausted that I've stopped doing a lot of things. This seems very strange in some ways since I've been working out more and getting in somewhat better shape. I guess this travel is taking more out of me than I thought.

Ok, I didn't intend for this post to be this long. I guess I'm done rambling for tonight. (I really intended that last paragraph to be my sign off paragraph...)
Peace to all and my you have many happy adventures with many good friends in your life.

New York Bound

I was going to post yesterday, but I never got around to it.
I meant to post before I left for Albany this afternoon. Again, I forgot.
So I'm writing now from my hotel room in Albany.

Saturday, I was going to tell you about picking up the rental car. No, everything went fine.
Gak dropped me off at about 8:30 to pick up the car. They don't open until 9. My reservation was for noon. Oops.
That's OK, the people there are very nice and they had a car available. If I'd remembered, I could have had them pick me up, but then I would have missed going to the gym and I really needed to get a third time in this week.
This meant that I had about a half hour to stand around outside the rental place.
It was a gorgeous fall day. Yes, all the leaves are off the trees, so it's looking a little brown. But the sky was so blue and clear. The air was crisp but not cold. All I could think about was how many mornings like this I'd woken up on a camping trip. (The rental place is near where I used to turn to go to my GS camp.) I kept picturing how happy I would be with my feet up near a fire, a mug of hot chocolate in my hands. Or making breakfast of French toast over the fire and getting smoke in my face. I loved those trips. Most of the other girls in my troop would complain about how cold it was (it had to be about 50 out) and how miserable they were and why wasn't breakfast ready and all that jazz. As senior patrol leader most of my time in Cadettes and Seniors, I could have easily delegated the cooking to others. Instead, I took the whole morning routine upon myself and my closest friends. (In hindsight, they were kinda like my version of senior staff from West Wing, with less drama usually...) We usually had everything all but ready when the others woke. This meant I got to delegate cleanup. Or at least in theory. I usually ended up helping with this too, or it would never get done. That's OK because on cool, crisp fall days, if you aren't moving, you will get cold.
Those were the thoughts that kept me smiling for about a half hour before I picked up my car.

Today I drove to Albany. Actually, it was this afternoon, since it's only about a 4 hour drive. It was a fairly enjoyable ride. I didn't take the turnpike up, since that would have been west of where I wanted to go. Instead I took 287, aka the New York Throughway. Not a bad drive really, except that it started getting dark around 4:30 and the exits aren't by mile marker. I stopped for dinner on the way at a rest stop (I still owe Scout a chocolate shake...). The Roy Rogers was out of chicken, so I went over to the Nathan's Famous. Famous for what, I'm not sure. The chicken sandwich I had was OK, but the bun was really dry. The fries were either cold and grease soaked, or half done and grease soaked. And they gave me a diet coke. Now, I can see why people drink the stuff. Me, I can't get past the chemical taste. All diet soda tastes this way, trust me, I've tried. I guess you could get used to it, but I prefer to ration the real stuff.

Anyhow, I've got a 7:30 am start time and need to get there a little early tomorrow.
Peace to all and may your travels be easy.

Oh, yeah, and this morning, I had a really great adventure with Rodentia, Syn, Charitee, Gak and Kas in Mistmore Catacombs. Oh yeah, Phae (Phred) joined us after a bit too. I'll try and write it up tomorrow, but I've rambled on long enough for one post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Last night after Gak got off work we drove down to my parents house. We got there just in time. My brother was about 5 or 10 minutes behind us on a shuttle to the hotel near my parents place. A good dinner was had by all.
It was great to see my brother again. I've missed him a lot. We don't write or call as often as we should, but we really do miss each other. He decided to come home for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas this year because his 10-year High School reunion is tomorrow and partially because Gak and I are leaving for Gak's parents the day after Christmas.

Today was a good day. A semi-lazy morning. Still early by many people's standards, but lazy for this family. Mom and I then decided that we were going to make the apple pie for lunch, instead of dinner. See, today is my birthday and apple pie is traditionally my birthday cake. (Just don't put candles in a pie that hasn't been out of the oven long.... trust me on this one!) Therefore we had birthday for lunch and Thanksgiving for dinner. I even got to talk to Gram on the phone at lunch and she sang to me. I wish she'd been up here in person, but at least I still have her!
Other than a bit of cooking, a little TV and Gak taking a nap or two, today was uneventful. The turkey decided to be done an hour earlier than planned, but that's OK, mom's been doing this long enough that it's not hard to adjust. (At least we weren't waiting on the turkey when everything else was ready to go.)

I have lots of things to be thankful for. That I have a wonderful family, and that Gram has gone through surgery OK. Things are fairly hopeful as far as the bladder cancer in the kidney goes. It could go one of two ways, either everything is fine because there's no problem with the tube between the kidney and bladder, or they'll have to operate to remove the kidney. There are some tests she's got to have done first before anything else.
I'm also thankful that I have a lot of friends, who I pretty much consider family. Some of them have been having a bit of a rough year, but I'm just glad I can be there for them. My sister has had a rough couple of years, but hopefully things will be moving forward and getting calmer, if not easier.
There are so many things to be thankful for, but my friends and my family top the list. I love them all.
Peace to all and remember to be thankful every day, especially for the little every day things that make life so much happier.

This is vacation?

Ok. I'm supposed to be on vacation. Why in the world am I worrying about work and feeling like there are 7 million things for me to do.
Oh, wait... there are....
But I can't do any of them.
The (fill in the blank as you wish) person at the training center in Phoenix never did get me that quote, even though when I finally talked to him on Thursday, he said he'd get right on it. (6 months after we first asked....) He said I had the room reserved, so I plan on holding him to it. No quote, no payment though. I need to get out email confirmations and info to everyone. But I left all that info at work.
I want to scream.
This is why I needed Deb and Andrea in the KC office helping me.
Corporate felt otherwise and eliminated their positions. So therefore, not just myself, but anyone doing a seminar is up a creek without a paddle, or a prayer.
I've been out of the office almost every day the last 4 or 5 weeks.
I don't have the time or, in reality, the resources, to do this. (Ok, so I also get overwhelmed easily by projects like this and can't seem to figure out where to start....) I don't have some of the needed skills for this. I also don't have the attention span. I mean, I'm never in the office long enough to pay enough attention to the project to even get it started, let alone set up!

I'm supposed to be on vacation and relaxing.
I'm not supposed to be working at all.
I did get some fun in. I spent more time online with friends, but I'm probably not going to log in much tomorrow. I need a break from it. I need to just do something non computer. But, with everything not going on at work, I'll probably end up at least checking the email if not trying to get ahold of my boss again. Oh, wait, no I won't... he's on vacation the rest of the week and out of town. Never mind. Guess I'll just have lots of unhappy people, including myself.

Ok. enough rantage and raving. I did come across something extremely funny (from my point of view) last night.
Meera, my level 35 ranger, was exploring the new Gnomish homelands, Steamfont. The gnomes are tinkerers. But, the also have the department of Gnomeland Security.
Wait, it gets better.
I find one of the guys and he sends me on a quest. This is the first quest he sent me on. Apparently the local bad guys were capturing local animals and training them to hurt people. I was asked to remove said animals (who were innocent bystanders) because by taking them out would hurt the bad guys.
Yes, you can read as much political commentary into this quest as you like. The actual wording was much funnier, but I can't remember it. I think I giggled about SOE and their sideways comments for a good 5 minutes.
The next quest involved taking out a bunch of the baddies and 'capturing' some of the brew from the two different camps. Yes, read what you will into this, I know I did.

Well, I'm just rambling now and still a bit grumpy about work (and a new in-game thing that is really pointless and could have been so much better). And the sooner I stop writing about it, the sooner I can focus on something happy... like my bed and sleep.
Peace to all and when you take a vacation or come home from work, please, leave work at work. It's so much better for both you and your family!! (Yes, it's hard, but please try......)

VACATION!!!!!

I've been on vacation since Friday afternoon. It hasn't really felt like vacation until now, when I'm about to head to bed and I realize that, despite the fact that I'll be awake by 7am, I don't have to be... For an entire week!

Yesterday was a normal Saturday, if one could call any day normal. I did my normal daytime things, except laundry. I talked with mom several times in brief snippet conversations. I picked Gak up from work and made dinner. Yep, normal.

Then we went online. We grouped up with four of our friends and took our 'big kids' out for a spin. This meant I got to play as Addey, which I love. After a bit of chaos in the beginning, it turns into a good and fun evening.

Note to self, don't go into Mistmore Manor alone, or even with a group of six. The vampires who live there really don't like visitors. I suggest taking a whole slew of people, probably 12 or more. Yes, definitely a lot of people with really good equipment and skills. We gave it our best though. Poor Kas, he really did want to tank it the silly Templar healer.

After our Mistmore misadventures we end up in the town in Loping Plains and just pick up about a half dozen quests. We then proceed to mow our way through them. We also end up getting me a really kick-butt pair of gloves. They're part of a set and I can't wait to get more pieces! We stayed on later than usual and you could tell. We were using Vent, which always adds more fun, and we were getting downright punchy. At least Charitee and I were. Kas was a blast to have around as usual. Too bad Syn had to log early to do his second job as potato peeler (for his wife).

Today was a lazy day. I didn't even bother to really get dressed, jammies are so much more comfie. We spent a lot of time online with friends. This morning, (or was it noon-time by then?) we did a pair of instanced zones. Treats came away with a great pair of bracers that were part of a set. Again, lots of fun was had by all.

My plans for the week? Not many. Mom's going down to MD to take Gram to the Dr. on Tuesday. I thought about going with her, but we decided that it probably wasn't the best idea. I'm going to go down at some point, but not this week. I'll make time in the next few weeks. I think we might be going to her place for Christmas day anyhow. I really want to make it down before then though. The only thing I really know that I'm doing is laundry tomorrow morning.

Ok, well, I'm tired. Peace to all and spend some time with friends and family. It's so much better then being alone.

Welcome to Faydwer!

Welcome to Butcherblock Mountains. This is the view I had as I took the boat from Thundering Steppes to the new lands.
It is so beautiful over there.
I didn't get a whole lot of time to explore, since it took about 5 hours for the thing to update. It's very pretty and they've made some substantial changes.
This morning I'm going to try and create my Fae, while most people are asleep.

In other news, the training continues to go well, only one more day this week. Lots of last minute chaos for my December trip to Phoenix, but hopefully I'll be able to reign some of that in today in the office.
Well, peace to all and find something to explore!

Weekend Fun

This was a very good weekend. A much needed break after last week.

Michelle came up Friday afternoon.

Friday night we went out for dinner and Gak did something evil.

He showed Michelle the new Fae that are being added to EQII. Michelle does not play computer games, unless you count solitaire. Michelle does not play well with computers in general. Needless to say this created much amusement for all involved. I just wish I'd been on the beta server myself. As is, I created a newbie on my normal server and putzed around.

She chose a Conj, because of the classes she liked, they had the outfit she liked best. (I heard that shudder from all you game type people who stop by here!) I couldn't see what she was doing because Gak's and my computer face away from each other, but I could hear. It was interesting and fun.

Saturday we tried to go jeans shopping for me. This is a x4 Epic quest most days. This weekend I think it was an x6 Epic quest. We managed to find a lot of things to laugh at. (And why, why, must designers etc. think that stretch means we can make it too small but it'll be ok???) We also managed to find me a pair of khakis to replace my 8-year-old pair that look it.

We then went to JoAnn's. More as a consolation than a reward like we hoped. She talked me into buying fabric and tools to make a quilt like she makes for the babies in her family and her friends' babies. Mind you, it didn't take much talking, more of "wouldn't this fabric make a cute quilt?" kind of persuasion.

Well, Saturday night we cut out the squares and sewed them together. Meanwhile, I did something evil. I (well, Gak too...) got Michelle hooked on Full Metal Panic!. It is one of my favorite anime series. Just enough chaos, some mech fighting and a tremendous story line. Sunday we continued the Panic marathon and finished the quilt. This meant a ton of snipping and cutting. The beauty of this quilt is that it doesn't need batting and you want the edges to frey.

I washed it today when I did laundry while I was "working" from home. (I actually did get stuff done, but it was sporadic and around chores.) The picture above is it. Sam has claimed it I think. We'll see. It's nominally my niece's for when she's over for a visit. It's red and lady bugs on one side and red and funny bugs on leaves on the other. I love it. It was fun and easy and a great weekend project.

Tomorrow and Friday I teach, and will be in the office the other days. Next week I'm on vacation!!!!! (And my brother is coming home for Turkey day, which is also my b-day.)

Peace to all and find something to do that you enjoy. It makes life so much more fun.

p.s. The viewing/funeral for Pat was on Sunday. I didn't go because Mom didn't call me until Sunday morning. I told her to give everyone hugs for me. I'm both glad and sad I didn't go.

Loong Week

This has been one emotionally draining week.

Training and being excited and interactive with a bunch of strangers is hard enough on me some weeks. (It worked OK Tuesday and Wednesday because I knew Larry already...) I only taught 3 days this week, but that really does take a lot of energy out of you.

Gram had surgery and the news, while not horrible, wasn't really all that great. Her temperature has stabilized and should be going home tomorrow. (She'd rather stay in the hospital really, better care in some ways.) The anesthesia has messed up her memory a bit, but not permanently. She's not quite up to par enough to stay in her own apartment, so she'll be in the assisted part. Missing her own TV and her own recliner. It'll be OK though, because it'll mean she's on the mend.

Worrying wears you out, and I've done plenty of that this week. Mom's exhausted too.

I got a call today at lunch from my mom. She was expecting to get my voicemail. Remember how I said we went to a 'family' get together last month in Maryland. Well, Pat, the mom of Dave, Jim, Linda and Robin, passed away last night. She was younger than my Gram. But she was in much worse shape. She'd had several mini-strokes starting over 10 years ago now. She wasn't looking all that good last month at the gathering, but it was good to see her. She'd been in the hospital (I didn't know) and they thought she had gaul stones or the like. Well, last night she went into surgery. When they opened her up, the closed her right back up. She was full of gangrene. She passed within the hour.

I'm thinking it was for the best. She'd been in poor health for quite some time. She'd been in a lot of pain. Now she's not. The sad part is, we'll probably loose her husband, Strad, soon too. He's in poor physical health, but he's still mostly there mentally. I'm not sure this blow to his spirit won't be fatal. They'd be together again at any rate.

OK, enough on this. My brain is going to melt.

This weekend should be good though. Michelle is coming up. I'm done with teaching for the week. It's also gorgeous outside (we have the windows open).

Somehow the picture of Jorge staring out the window seemed appropriate today. (I have others that would work, but they're not on this computer yet...)

Peace to all, and like I've said all week, hug those you love and call the ones you don't see everyday.

Quick Update

Ok, I told you that my Gram had surgery earlier in the week. Well, she's still in the hospital and probably will be for another day or two. The surgery went well, but took more out of her then she thought it would. (She is almost 84 after all...) That and she's got slight pneumonia due to the fact that she almost always has some congestion and it hurts to cough right now.

What she had surgery for was to remove this odd lump on one of her kidneys that had doctors confused. They got about 90% of it and did more tests on it, since the original biopsy was 'inconclusive'.

Well, it turns out it's malignant and it's bladder cancer. On her kidney. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but she'd had a few spots of bladder cancer years ago that were taken care of. I guess one of the cells got loose or something or backed up into the kidney and took root.

Anyhow, what this means is that she's got to go see an oncologist for a second opinion (she's been referred to one that everyone where she lives seems to really like and trust...) and she'll possibly have to have more surgery to remove the whole kidney at some point.

My mom is driving home this morning from MD because she's got a ton of work backpiled at her and dad's shop. She's hoping to head down again some time next week.

All I know is that I really wish I could at least stop by the hospital and give her a hug. I love her so much and times like this make me miss her even more.

I know it'll all work out ok, she is pretty healthy over all and a very strong person, but it's this in-between time that's got me worried and anxious. I'm going to take one of my vacation days the week of Thanksgiving and drive down to see her... maybe my brother will come along....

The picture is from when she said grace at our wedding last year.

Peace to all and, please, hug those you love and call those who are too far away to hug in person.

Rain, Rain....

Not much today. It's a rainy Tuesday... er... make that Wednesday.

Yes, I have absolutely no sense of time.

I used to, but I think I left it on a plane somewhere.

Oops.

Anyhow, managed to vote yesterday. My county switched to an electronic voting machine. Pretty nice, since it lights up the choice you made so you can't make a mistake (unless you happen to be red/green color blind and can't see a red light on a white background. hmmm....). And they have paper trails too.

Not sure how I feel about the elections. I'm glad we get to keep Ed as governor. He did a great job with Philly (one of the most corrupt local governments there is) and came out clean and has real, achievable goals for the state. I'm still not sure I made the right choice for Senate, but I just couldn't bring myself to vote for the other guy. *Sigh* They're still trying to figure out who won the House election in my distract, there is about 1500 votes difference between the two. I'm pretty sure I made the right choice here.

Oh well, enough wondering. I just hope something gets moving with the politicians. Shake things up. It seems like everything has been stagnant for years.

Enough politics. I don't really like them and only pay enough attention to figure out if the person who's there is the one we should keep.

Training goes well this week. I wrapped up early for the three-day session. We pushed through and got everything covered in two. This is due to several reasons, including the fact that I only had 5 people and the knowledge level was already somewhat high. Also, they let me know upfront what was and was not important to their job so that's what we hit the hardest. The rest was just icing really. This means I'm going to work from home and run errands tomorrow. Should be good.

Ok, I'm just rambling to let everyone know that I am paying attention to the world and I haven't disappeared. Good news is that my friend Michelle in MD is coming up for the weekend. Even better news is that my Gram is recovering nicely from surgery. They still have no idea what the lump they removed from her kidney was, but there was a stone in the middle. They're running still more tests on the removed tissue and Gram will go home in the next day or so (if she hasn't already, I haven't heard from Mom today...).

Well, peace to all and enjoy a nice cup of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. They make cold grey days sooo much nicer. Especially if shared with someone you love.

Caps to the Capitol

Just a quickie this morning. As some of you know, I sometimes crochet blankets for Project Linus http://www.projectlinus.org/index.shtml. I enjoy it because it is for kids in need and also because it's a national organization but the blankets stay local.

Well, I'm on a new charity project for the moment. My friend at work who also crochets told me about a project called Caps to the Capitol and sent me the link in today's headline. I did some investigation and Save the Children is a long-time, well managed group that helps kids both here at home as well as around the world. Knowing that, I've thrown myself into the project. They are asking knitters and crocheters across the country to make little caps and send them in. They will be compiled along with letters and delivered to the President in January. Their goal is to ask him to do more for the babies of the world. It amazed me the number of little ones that don't live just because they spend too much precious energy keeping warm to live.

Anyhow, check out the link to check out the info or if you feel the need to contribute. The caps pictured here I made in less than 2 hours between Thursday and Friday. I plan on making a handful more before shipping them out. (It's also a great, heart happy way to use up some odds and ends.)

Well, that's enough from me. As you know, I don't 'soap box' often, but occasionally feel the need. Peace to all and hug a child, they're all precious, no matter where they're born.

Yarn and Hockey?

Yesterday was an interesting day.

I finally made it down to Skippack to the yarn store I found online a few weeks ago. Actually, make that over a month ago now. (Man, time really flies when you're on the road!)

I spent a good chunk of time just touching and feeling all these wonderful yarns. I mean, what you can get at the big-box craft/sewing places is nice, but well... boring. Or maybe ordinary is a better word. At any rate, a real yarn store has so much more than 50-million choices of almost the same color in almost the same material. I ended up only buying 3 skeins. The deep turquoise is for a project for someone special (who reads this site on a regular basis). I'm not sure exactly what I'm making, but it's a wool/silk blend and is light as a feather. The variegated is from South West Trading Company. It's a fiber they call soy silk. It's recycled soy fibers that are left over from the process to make tofu. Yep, this is the non-edible part of tofu. (Yes, I know some of you out there doubt that the part they sell in grocery stores is edible either....) I have no idea what I'm doing with it but it's very pretty and very soft. I want to make something for me, but I need to find just the right pattern.

After I went to the yarn store I visited with my friend Barb at a craft fair. She was doing her tastefully simple thing. This meant I spent more money. Oh well. She's also doing fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy. Her oldest son, Bren, is living with this, so it's something near and dear to my heart. Remember that bear I made, it was for her younger son's first birthday. We had a nice visit but then I realized I still needed to run to the store before picking up Gak from work. Eeep!

Last night was fun. I'd gotten a call from Kat Friday to tell me that she might have hockey tickets for last night's game. In a box. Cool. She messaged me and said she'd pick me up around 6. Yeah.

We were running late, which is ever the case with us. We missed the first period of the game, but that's OK because the Flyers botched it pretty badly. The third period went well, but not well enough to pull off a win. We had a good time (and I left my brother a message letting him know that I wasn't watching the game on TV but from a box) and better yet, a good time to just hang out and talk. We both agree we don't get to do that enough. We used to have Thursday evenings together. We did this for a couple of years after Zoe was born. Now, with my travel job, we're lucky if we get a few hours every few months. It really sucks. Hopefully we'll be able to change that soon.

Well, I'm off to do other things. One last note though, Monday (tomorrow) my Gram goes into surgery. It's nothing really major, but it's a big enough deal that we worry. Mom is down there to shuttle her around and be support. I wish I could be.

Peace to all. Call your grandparents and your parents, they love you and need to hear from you too.

Not MIA... just nothing exciting...

Since Monday, nothing really exciting has happened.
I'm enjoying not having to travel and actually be able to be home and spend time with my honey Gak.
Wednesday was a raid night, if you want to call it that.
It was probably the worst raid we've had in ages. We had a ton of fighter types and almost nothing else. We were going after the twin dragons. You have to keep them within 5% of each other.
Our Vent server is down.
We don't have TS any more.
No voice communication.
Needless to say it was a disaster. No communication and no damage control. I think we wiped in under 2 minutes. Mind you, that was after standing around with our thumbs up our butt for about an hour 'waiting'. Waiting for what, I'm not too sure.
So, I guess that was something interesting, if only because it was frustrating.
Oh well, I'm off to work now.
Peace to all and my your frustrations be few.