Friday, June 27, 2003
migrated
This blog's been migrated over to the new Blogger servers. So if anything looks weird (characters displaying incorrectly, etc.) let me know.
Never did hear back from those Colorado people. Not even a "Thanks but no thanks." I may try again.
Lots of other good things in motion though. House things to get away from the EMC™ — hearing from an old friend half a world away — putting on a dress that was tight last year and finding it fits wonderfully now — finding an amazing bargain for storage-type pieces of furniture. The weeks go by too fast but this was, at least, a good one.
Monday, June 23, 2003
I was forced to endure a purple polyester, lame-santa-bearded dumbledore
I didn't really want to go because I knew that we'd be out really late. But I also didn't want to send An out there by herself, so I reluctantly agreed.
She really, really wanted a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and we had not pre-ordered a copy. I was skeptical that we'd come away with anything at all, and really, I figured that we'd be turned away and I'd get to come home.
We were not turned away.
We arrived at about 8:20pm to find that the queue for the tickets to get the book was relatively short (numbers were due to be handed out starting at 9pm). There were a precious few high-numbered tickets there for people who hadn't pre-ordered. Ours was Slytherin 920. They started counting from 1.
We stood in the ticket line behind a really interesting looking girl. Albino — except that she had blue eyes. I suppose it's possible that she was wearing blue contacts, but she was also squinting to see things. Seemed unlikely that she'd be wearing lenses that weren't corrective.
The gaggle of teens at the very front of the line were so adorable. I could totally relate in the fandoms of my own teenage years.
The boy who got ticket number one was pink-cheeked and ecstatic.
There was a band playing there, a group of high schoolers calling themselves The Barrowites, which made Andra and I snicker tremendously. There were a lot of things for kids to do, crafts like making gold-glitter covered styrofoam balls (Golden Snitch) and pipe cleaners bent into round Harryesque glasses. There was a costume contest and the girl who won looked like she could have stepped out of the movie as an extra. (We shall not think again about the purple polyester, tacky white Santa-bearded Dumbledore.)
Mostly I was fairly bored and tired, and increasingly cranky as the night wore on. I tried sitting down and reading out of another book I was going to buy, but I had to sit on the floor, and got stepped on half a dozen times.
When they wheeled the boxes of books out from the back to the registers, the oohs and ahhs would lead a person to believe the Queen herself was making a processional through the store. It was unbelievable. The book line began forming shortly after the books made their entrance. It was chaos, naturally. Unsurprisingly, an impatient doofus who probably rolled in at about 10:30pm or so kept causing a disturbance by complaining loudly to all who would listen that By God, I Ordered My Book In January So Why Do I Have To Wait In This Line?! Word to the wise, dude: next time, order it online and have it delivered to you in the comfort of your own home, and away from other people, as you'd likely prefer.
The staff called out the ten- and then the five- minute warning. I hate to sound old and jaded but people were way the hell too excited about it, really. I'm sure my attitude had a lot to do with the fact that I'd been up since 5:30 am, and it was getting closer and closer to midnight. (I refuse to count the hour nap after I'd got home from the café because of the duelling outside-dog-barking / indoor-bird-chirping. Barkchirp! Barkchirp! ARRRRRRRGH.)
I refused to participate in the last thirty second countdown, and actively hid my face from the TV cameras. (Don't get me wrong. I wasn't embarrassed to be there — I've been to Star Trek conventions, for Pete's sake. I just really wanted to be home. Sleeping.)
We had to wait a good long while before we could actually get into the line. The line on the other end of the store was into the final group (all tickets up to 1000) when my bank of registers was still 350 and under. Murphy's Law in action.
We got out of there at 1, of 1:15, or something. In any case it was Damned Late. My equilibrium was doing interesting things, I was thirsty and cranky as all get out.
An stayed up way too late Saturday reading the thing, and finished, so I have it now. I'm about a sixth of the way in, and am avoiding all of the news websites because I have no desire at all to know any of the secrets of the book.
And since I have too much respect for Mary GrandPré to allow the dust jacket to get all torn up, I took it off. My copy is now wrapped all high-school-textbook-like in a plain piece of drawing paper, because I don't want the book itself getting all banged up, either.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
keep 'em crossed
My horoscope says that ~July 1st will be a profitable day for me… I hope perhaps this means that I will hear back from an inquiry I sent to CU in Colorado regarding online children's books illustrators. (No, T, I haven't forgotten about wanting to do your story, but I've got to look into making more money!) It really sounds ideal. I hope my being so far away from Colorado won't make a difference to them. It is the age of distance learning and working, after all. And Online! Illustration! Children's books! A perfect match for me.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
pat me on the head and tell me it's good
Ego-boosts appreciated.
I drew and painted this. In context.
Source picture is a Persian painting I got out of my Time-Life book. It's a prize for archery for an upcoming event. Appropriate, eh?
Feeling kind of blah, mostly because of the whole house uncertainty thing. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's hard. If the appraisal doesn't meet the estimate, I'm not sure what we're going to do.
If it does, and we make this go through? Big party at my house. During which I'm going to call the EMC™ and tell them to kiss my ass.
Seriously.
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
to accompany yesterday's post
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
better than cable
Thor, the new cat, continues to settle in well. He hasn't peed on anything inappropriate in weeks which, believe me, is a huge relief. He is still chasing the girls around, not because he wants to beat up on them, but just that he wants to play. He's probably only about a year old, whereas the girls are 8 and almost 9. True, they are in great shape for older cats, but they are past frantic play days.
And someone delivered a swipe across Thor's nose, so the girls are getting their licks in. Rowan doesn't like any cat to encroach her personal space, so unsurprisingly, she continues to hiss at Thor whenever he gets near her.
Except for last night.
The living room window was open with the expandable screen in place, which lets the air in and keeps the cats from getting out. Rowan is not used to sharing the window and she makes it known that she Does Not Approve of Thor's presence.
I realised after several moments that there were suddenly no more contentious noises coming from beside me. I glanced over to see that two pairs of feline eyes were transfixed on something I couldn't see. So transfixed, in fact, that Thor was actually laying across Rowan in the windowsill and Rowan didn't even turn around or otherwise acknowledge his presence. I knew something Very Interesting was out there.
I got up on my knees and peered out the window. It turned out to be… a squirrel.
Seems squirrels have taken to using the foliage on the side of the house as a ladder up to the ledge (and gutter) that runs around the middle of the house (between first and second floors). Watching the cats watch the squirrel was very entertaining indeed.
The squirrel left; the bickering resumed.
When the rustling of the foliage (and kitty silence) returned I glanced over and noticed that Arwen, the black kitty, had joined the group watching the the squirrel channel on Cat TV. I peeked outside myself and lo and behold, it was a little grey kitty peering up from the driveway, and a very cautious looking squirrel hanging out in the branches between them.
Thankfully, I had the camera in my clutches, so that An could not snap a picture of the four of us looking at a squirrel.
The grey kitty turned and walked away and it was then I realized she was hugely pregnant. (Stupid people, not fixing their cats. Grrrr.)
Thursday, June 05, 2003
inertia
I came back into the office intending to do some cleaning and organizing, and I sat down at the desk to do a quick mail check.
…It's been 2 hours. I can't get the impetus to get moving again.
My left arm and in fact whole left side has been aching like a bitch today. Something is out in my back and pinching a nerve, I'm certain.
I did spend some time being crafty last night. I'm trying to make Mongolian braid cases (as shown in Martha Boyer's Mongol Jewelry) to complete my ensemble at SCA events. They're basically slightly conical tubes with an almost fin tail at the bottom, and then at the very very bottom, a long piece of fabric that almost looks like a necktie. This is a picture of a false braid, and it's minus the bottom 'necktie', but you get the general idea.
(By the way, the item above is pictured with other items stolen from an SCA merchant's van, so if you do renfaire or SCA stuff, keep your eyes peeled.)
Anyway. I followed the specs listed in the Boyer book for measurements, and I came up with what I think is a pretty nice pattern to make me a couple of these (one for each braid). Of course, the book has multiple detailed photos of mannequins wearing the costumes and jewelry of the different tribes of Mongols… except for the Ordos Mongols, which is of course the one I'm looking to copy. One photo that shows the mannequin from the shoulders up, so aside from the pencil sketches in the book, I don't even really know what the finished case is going to look like, at least not the bottom of it.
Gah. The fingers on my left hand are starting to hurt something fierce, so I think I'll stop here.
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Oh my
It's been a while since I updated, hasn't it?
Weeks are flying by but I feel like I haven't much to show for it. Pollen levels are unbearable. Tired if I take antihistamines; tired itchy eyes if I don't. Can't win.
On the same subject, a friend of mine did a show in town on Saturday night and I feel badly because I couldn't make it. :(
Had a Meet the Doctor appointment yesterday, and was pleased to discover my weight is down 32 pounds since I started doing Atkins in mid-January — and this was mid-afternoon, after lunch, fully dressed. My size 12 jeans, which were a little on the big size for 12s to start with, are very soon going to be too big to wear. (Woe is me.) I haven't worn 10s since junior high, so I'm pretty psyched. I think I'm trading fat for muscle, because the scale isn't budging much, but I'm definitely noticing how differently my clothes feel.
And I don't care about being stick thin supermodelly nor have I set unrealistic weight goals for myself (I think my bones alone weigh 100 pounds, ha ha). I just like the way being more healthy feels.
