an exercise in self-indulgence

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:15:56 GMT

Yesterday at my parents' place. Shows off the boring side of the mitts. They've got a great braided cable on the other side.

If for some reason you're interested in what I've been knitting lately, I've uploaded pics to my photobucket 'yarn stuff' directory.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:18:49 GMT

Had a really good day with karitawyr today. Which is an amazing thing considering my day started by discovering a leak in my toilet plumbing.

No more home warranty, so I had to do the scary thing of finding a plumber on a Saturday. He took a couple hours to get here and probably spent another hour actually working. I have no idea how long he was here though. Not really. All I know is that I am thankful I got paid yesterday and that this was the check with the 20 hours of overtime on it.

But like I said, good day otherwise. Watched SGU (I think I actually almost liked this episode). Made Karita watch Community. We watched the dvd release of Children of the Gods.

And food! Ate entirely too much. Found out there are two Irish pubs here in Leavenworth. One was kinda scary looking and the other was closed. :( Also there's a wee Brit shop here that we visited today, but the emphasis was definitely on the tea and not the other stuff.

And we knitted! Much knitting with the tv on.

A good day. A really good day.

I needed that.

Home again.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:07:56 GMT

I had a most excellent weekend with the most excellent ell. Hostess with the mostess, donchaknow.

There was tapas and Men Who Stare at Goats and supermarket sushi and Stitch-n-Bitch and car worries and Kabob Palace and playful kitty who went nuts with the laser pointer and Real Genius and watermelon and and and...

You get the idea.

Now I'm back home and worrying about work. Trying not to.

Also, I'm wicked tired and have no idea why. I guess it's like con drop. :)

Think I'll go sit on the couch and knit and watch Community.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:19:20 GMT

What I need is a new job. So much easier said than done, even in a good economy.

I've been here almost two and a half years. Sadly, that's one of my longest stretches at any job.

Schedule change is on the horizon. I'm hoping that will help some.

And it just registered this afternoon...I have to leave my house tomorrow at 5:30am to make my flight. Leave the house at 5-freaking-30. Ouch. I had thought I would read some while on the plane. I think I'll be sleeping instead. And I haven't packed yet. Oops.

I need to stop *thinking* now.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:51:50 GMT

I figure if I'm getting multiple phone calls checking up on me, I probably should update.

I'm still muddling through. Today at work wasn't awful. Still got another 20 minutes to go, but I'm cautiously optimistic...

The evil machine that would not be fixed is fixed, but I wasn't the one who did the final fixing. Odds of two usb cables crapping out at the same time? Yeah. Whatever. I think the OEM handled this one poorly.

Tonight was a conveyor motor in an xray. Right down there on the list of things I don't like doing. Thankfully I had Nick to help. Help, hell, he did most of the work. Or at least it felt like it.

I'm making a little trip this weekend. ell generously offered up a change of venue, so I'll be flying out to DC Saturday morning to spend the weekend with her and her temp kitty. Timing happened to work out with synecdochic's monthly stich-n-bitch too. My cup runneth over.

Knitting... finished one mitt, started in on the second one tonight. Yeah, got enough down time at work to knit. Finally.

Fannishly there's nothing. Still no vidding. Of course no writing. Haven't even really been reading. Been watching Castle and Community, but not feeling *fannish* about either... well, other than really wanting to vid Castle, but I still haven't stumbled across a song yet.

One thing about Castle. A question.... Does anyone else get something of a Moonlighting feel from Castle? Or is it just me?

Springfield, MO

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:58:25 GMT

Oh, look. Springfield again.

If not for the spectacularly crappy weather, I'd be on my way home. Instead, I'm at my usual hotel until a reasonable hour in the morning when the rain should be done. And then I get to go to work. *facepalms*

Oh, and I get to be on-call Saturday as well.

I'm tired and really close to overwhelmed right now. Think I'll knit for a bit then go to bed.

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:54:14 GMT

Last weekend marked my fifth anniversary of living in the Kansas City area. Next month marks five years living alone.

I'm wandering around my house today thinking both how cool it is that I have this big old house and how sad it is that it's just me and apparently it's only ever going to be just me. Not so much a pity party, really.

I've been watching tv and knitting today. Rewatched a bunch of Community eps. I really enjoy that show. You should try it out. I'm taking a break from White Collar right now. I'd probably be done watching it if it were available On Demand on the cable. Alas, no. But hulu is taking care of me (Yes, it's available on usa's site, but not full-screen. I like full-screen) :)

The knitting is going really slowly. Much smaller yarn, much smaller needles. Adds up to much slower knitting. I'm considering getting rid of all the small sock yarn. I just don't know that I have the patience for it anymore. We'll see how this pair goes.

Although if I worked small things with small yarn... I'm thinking of making up some really wee socklets for my Christmas tree this year.

I bought new jeans yesterday. Yet another size smaller. At the beginning of the summer I was wearing size 22. My new jeans are size 18. Go me.

My mood.... up and down today. Pity the sun didn't see fit to show itself today.

brief update

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:43:20 GMT

Okay, so coming up with questions is a bazillion times harder than I thought. I'm thinking I'll be dealing with those over the weekend. Sorry.

Meanwhile, work is work. Getting some knitting done in between preventive maintenance slogging.

Moving right along on the next knitting project. I haven't worked on size 2 needles in about forever, and this is really trying my patience. Not in a bad way, I think. No pics of this one yet.

I keep slogging along. Days kinda blending into one another.

I'm trying something new at work. Every couple of hours I'm getting up and walking the terminal all the way up and back. It's over a third of a mile long, so it's *something*. Better than sitting on my ass in the office.

Meme time.

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:23:39 GMT

As seen over at master_chatnoir...

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions edit - coming up with questions is harder than I expected, so no more. sorry! :(

I make no guarantees of the quality of the questions I'll ask. Sorry.

But here's some answers. Questions courtesy of the aforementioned Chat.

1. How did you learn to knit? - I taught myself from a crappy book when I was around 30. Had to relearn a few years later, again from a crappy book. I have since learned new things via the ever-so-shiny internet (like knitting backwards!).

2. If you could change careers right now, would you? And if so, to do what? - Oh, hell yes. If I could change to something that would make enough money to make ends meet, I would be there a month ago. To what, I have no idea. I've done a bunch of crap jobs in the past, nothing that would make ends meet now. I miss the night audit thing, but that pay around here is a joke. Once upon a time I was in college working towards being a programmer. Wish I could do that, but I'm so out of date it's not even funny.

3. What would be your dream meal? - I love food in general. This question is too hard. The Thanksgiving meal from last year would be right up there. Alternatively, a couple Godzilla rolls from Stix with a salad and a big bowl of cut watermelon would be mighty tasty.

4. What are you dressing up as for Halloween (and if you say you aren't, then what would you be if you did dress up)? - I'm not dressing up. I do have my generic Darth NoVacancy costume that I really should take to Escapade.

5. Which would you rather have: 1. An unending source of money; 2. Perfect happiness; 3. The knowledge of what life after death is? - I'll take the happiness, please. Partly because it would probably include a good source of cash. ;) And oddly enough, I'm not all that curious about life after death. Oh, and I only choose the happiness if it's unlimited.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:29:34 GMT

I just want this day to be over.

Ruined a shirt and pair of khakis today. Had a machine fail to come back up properly after preventive maintenance.

It's 12:30 and I'm still at work and I just want to go home and cry and crawl into bed for a week.

edit - home by 1:30 or so. Shirt and pants went out to the curb with the rest of the trash. My hands feel like they're never going to be clean again.

There was one bright spot ---> A postcard. I think it was elayna88 (judging from the handwriting and the postmark). Jack O'Neill *and* Michael Westen. How could I not smile? And then want to cry because I really don't feel I've done a damn thing to earn the fucking awesome friends I've got.

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:33:52 GMT

I just vacuumed the downstairs (omg the nastiness in the dirtcup! it *really* hasn't been that long and still... ew). So now I think it's meme time.

01. Comment to this entry saying 'ICONS!' and I will pick 6 of your icons.
02. Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked.

These are courtesy of batagur.

1. rats

Renton from deleted scenes from the Trainspotting dvd. This is the only other icon that has ever been my default icon, and that for only a couple weeks, iirc. Rats! is just a nice keyword. Piss off, fuck off, dammit to hell, and so on... would all be appropriate keywords. I made this icon myself. Can't you tell?

2. courtin' sweater!

The smushname pairing that gets no love... Weirdwell. One of my few het pairings. I love Caldwell and Weir so much, and there is hardly any out there. I have no idea who started calling it the courtin' sweater first, but I picked up on it. Karita made the icon, and I think she's the one who came up with the clever words. This poor baby doesn't get used much, but it really is one of my favorites.

3. donny approves

This one was made by _kiden, and she posted it as up for grabs. I couldn't resist. I used to watch the Donny and Marie show religiously back in the day, though I didn't have a *huge* crush on Donny (no, my crush was saved for Shaun Cassidy, thank you). This is the icon of approval in general.

4. spy shoes

Made by subliculous some time ago. She was in a big Spy vs Spy kick. And I apparently have a thing about shoes (I have rather a high percentage, relatively speaking, of footwear related icons). So I couldn't resist. It's also slashy. Which makes it a good all-purpose icon. Also one of my favorites.

5. working now

I have no idea who made this. If someone can enlighten me, please do. I have the description of this one as "rodney is not a happy bunny". This is my "I'm working right now and I'm none too happy with it" icon. I think it's been getting used more lately.

6. yellow

Self-portrait of my feet at work, way back when I had a job where I spent so much time doing nothing. How I miss those days. These are my favorite Doc Martens. They've got a wicked cool design that I'd love to share, but those boots are, go figure, still packed. Someone remind me later, and I'll take a good pic of the pattern on them. It's what I call London-themed. One of my oldest icons. Doesn't get used much, but I have no plans on getting rid of it.

Monday

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:40:04 GMT

OMG. Can I please not have another work day like that for a while, please? Nick's sick, so I had to hit the ground running a half hour early... and didn't stop running until a half hour after my shift should have been over.

I got all kinds of filthy and sweaty. Really gross. Ew. Oddly enough, I'm not feeling it in my joints. Probably will tomorrow.

Did I mention I had to work Saturday night?

Oh, I didn't mention going to the Renaissance Festival with Karita Saturday afternoon. Quotage! "Nothing says Renaissance like Dumbledore and a steak sandwich." And then there was the kilted swish. And, of course, the half-naked Gypsy dancing boys.

Ah, thinking about Saturday afternoon has helped my mood. :)

Now it's time to take out the trash.

vid - Stay Up Late (Leverage gen, Hardison-centric)

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:06:20 GMT

Nevermind my mood, here's a vid.

Music by Talking Heads. (I originally felt a Hall and Oates song would be perfect for Hardison... but I had forgotten that notion by the time this one seized me.)

Thanks to paian and linda3m for the always wonderful support services.

Download links (right-click, save as) -
~44meg wmv
~92meg avi (not actually any higher quality, I just am inept at getting the darn avi filesize down)

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:40:10 GMT

Okay. How about this...

I think I may have a mouse in the house.

Eep.

And it's apparently hanging out in my upstairs bathroom and in the closet around the corner.

I *think* it's a mouse. I've only spotted it a couple times, but it's been late at night and it moved *really* fast.

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:14:58 GMT

Store brand peanut butter is all fine and good for a sandwich, but it's seriously lacking when eaten straight off a spoon.

question!

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:55:41 GMT

Once upon a time, I started watching Farscape. Got distracted around the beginning of season 3 and never got back to it.

I'm wanting to get back to it, and while I feel some need to go back and review, I really don't want to rewatch the whole first two seasons right now.

So. Can/will anyone tell me which episodes I need to watch again before diving back in where I left off? Please?

Thanks!

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:53:56 GMT

It is 8:45pm and I have already crawled into bed. Oh sure, I'm on the computer. But why am I in bed already? Boredom. Lack of motivation to do anything.

My folks came over today. Daddy installed a new ceiling fan in my office. How lacking is my brain? I did not even notice that this particular fan I picked out and bought doesn't have a light kit. The second top reason I'm changing it out is because the light kit on the old one was broken. And I did not even notice the new one didn't have one. My dad pointed it out. *facepalms*

Mom cracked the whip on me and got me to sift through some stuff so it could all be put away. My living room is so very close to being done.

I've got a serious mountain of crap to take to the curb tomorrow night. Ugh. But it's about time I got that crap out of the garage. Okay, technically mom did it while dad and I played the "is this the right breaker?" game in the house.

My basement is... well, for starters, it's really not a basement. It's a cellar. And it's fucking creepy. And right now it's damp. And filled with cobwebs. Going down to the breaker box umpteen times today really wasn't fun.

Crap. Just realized I forgot my meds. They're downstairs. Bugger.

Wednesday already?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:45:24 GMT

But I just got to work, so the midpoint of the week is still a few hours off.

Tomorrow is a day trip to Kirksville.

Work is work. I smashed one finger and took a chunk of flesh off another yesterday while repairing an xray. Oops. Not a major injury, no, but it does kinda hurt to turn a screwdriver now (and given how much of my job is turning a screwdriver? not fun).

Finally got in touch with the head med doc. I started on welbutrin today. I've had luck with it in the past.

Did the Wii Fit today and was very pleased to be merely overweight today instead of obese. :)

Speaking of the Wii... does anybody have any easy game recs? I lost my Wii Sports and recently replaced it with Wii Sports Resort, which is fun and all... but that's all I've got. I'm thinking I should get the Wii Play if only for the extra wiimote. :)

Fannishly, I'm catching up on Eureka. I hadn't watched in two years (almost exactly). I'm now three or four eps into season 3. I figure it'll be winding up its current run by the time I catch all the way up.

Well, that's not exactly fannish. I don't read Eureka fic (though if you've got slash recs, I'd love to hear 'em) or follow any comms or anything. Oh, and at this point I have no intention of vidding it either.

Been reading some older Jack/Daniel recs. I am apparently in a persnickety place right now because I'm not liking many of them. And these are recs by people I trust! But really, when I read "The view stretched as far as the eye could see." I'm not holding out high hopes (I backed out of that one within a page or two). But I don't know if I'm being cranky or just holding up impossible standards right now.

My vidding mojo is apparently on vacation on another planet as I haven't had any urge to vid or even to think about vidding. Which is weird if I think about it.

I think I've blathered enough.

Springfield, Missouri

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:28:17 GMT

I realized that I was getting ready to leave without having updated from here. Not my usual routine.

I find myself getting increasingly forgetful lately. Leaving my pager at home. Forgetting to make necessary phone calls. Not remembering for sure if I correctly closed up that xray. It's starting to interfere.

And at the moment I'm paranoid. I am done here, but I'm afraid to head on home... afraid that one of the machines I did maintenance on is going to crap out.

I went to bed at 8:30 last night. I was exhausted. I had had only three hours sleep Wednesday night.

I should go. Stop in Clinton for lunch.

Oh, was anyone else bothered by the treatment of mental illness (in general) on last night's Leverage?

vid - The Way We Get By (Leverage OT3)

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:28:42 GMT

So I've been wanting to do an Alec/Eliot vid for some time. But as much as I love that pairing, I love the OT3 with Parker even more. Alas, I did not have a song. I just wanted to vid. So I'd been playing the iPod on shuffle. I figured that surely with nearly 6000 tracks, there had to be something that was right.

I started clipping while shuffling the music. And then the other day...

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:47:52 GMT

It's been a month since I've vidded, and can I tell. It was a struggle and a mess. I'm wanting a pair of critical eyes to take a look, but at the same time not so much because I don't know if I could handle a complete overhaul.

*facepalms*

Had a farewell bbq tonight at my parents'. My youngest brother and his little family are moving to San Diego in a week. I am sad. My mother is not taking it well.

Connected to this... I'm buying my brother's second car - a '99 Honda Civic. Urgo needs a break (rolled 30k miles last week). And while it's not the sports car I still desperately want, maybe just having something *different* will help quell this stupid car buying urge.

Work was not hell this past week. Yay.

George (the eeepc) and my router have quit getting along. They both say they're connected, but no pages will load. Grrr. It's just at home. George connected fine to the wifi at the rv park. Bastard.

My meds... I have no idea.

Almost two in the morning, and it's still 84 out.

A handful of things make a post.

vid - sex, violence....and care bears

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:24:30 GMT

Yes, Care Bears.

Music by Marilyn Manson.
Clips from The Care Bears Movie (1985)

Yes, I am under psychiatric care.

download the ~23meg avi file here (right click, save as)

week from hell

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:04:59 GMT

And I swear it feels like it's never going to end.

And right here in the middle-ish, I woke up at 3am for no reason. Boom, I'm awake and can't get back to sleep. I eventually gave up and did some laundry and played a smidge with the wii.

But work hell. Xray generator on Monday. Only one covering Tuesday, and of course *two* xrays had to go down then. Yesterday, everything that needed to be done couldn't be done early, I had to wait. Today I'm the only one covering again. Tomorrow is the "easy" day, finally, when I do the monthly maintenance in Topeka.

My meds are in the process of being adjusted. And I took them early last night. I'd imagine both things combined to have me awake entirely too early.

I guess it's a good thing I just happened to pick up a couple sugar-free Rockstars yesterday.

OH. And I was supposed to have a furniture delivery Tuesday, but I had to cancel when the xrays went down. Rescheduled for Friday, so Topeka has to wait until my chifforobe arrives. *facepalms*

Still no vidding. I'm blaming depression.

Have I mentioned that my living room is almost all unpacked and put together? Well, the bookcases are merely loaded, not organized, and I still need a chair in there, and a tv stand. But! Relatively speaking, it's almost done. I even got rid of the huge pile of broken down moving boxes (Love craigslist). There's curtains even!

Okay. Going to try the sleep thing yet again. :P

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:12:30 GMT

So I went out and saw a movie after work today.

Oddly enough, I didn't choose Harry Potter. Weird.

I just wasn't in the mood. So I perused the list of what was playing at the nearby megaplex, and one title caught my eye.

Moon. Starring pretty much just Sam Rockwell, featuring Kevin Spacey's voice. Spacey does a pretty decent HAL impersonation, I'm just sayin'.

It was a very interesting movie. Felt a bit like old school sci-fi, in a good way (much of it reminded me of 2001, and not just the computer voice). I think I'll be picking this one up on dvd when it comes out. The pacing might be a little off, but that very well might be me as I was way over-caffeinated and literally vibrating when I got to the show.

And now... now I'd love to vid it. Not that I have a song in mind. Just. Yeah.

One thing makes a post.

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:59:50 GMT

What I should have posted instead of the stupid music meme...

Taken by my grandfather.

Apparently a few days after is when my biological father left my mom. So she's not all hoopy about the anniversary. She just told me this yesterday. Kinda wish I didn't know. You know? I mean, yeah, I knew he split, but I would rather not actually have a timeframe on it. Oh well, can't unknow it now.