Seismic Twitch

I’ve sunk down a lot with my feelings about Dad dying. I’ve preferred quiet to talking. Boy and Bran went out to Shell Lake to be with friends today. I opted to stay at home. I didn’t feel up to being with people and welcomed the time in solitude.

I got most of my order from Panda Hall. They left out one of the spacer bead orders though. I contacted them that day, and of course, made a typo in the email. It should be straightened out soon, I hope. I didn’t pay much for them, but I’m missing out 2000 pieces of stuff I paid for.

Since the order arrival, and after I checked it, I started to experiment with what I could create. I’ve made several bracelets and some earrings. I’d make more earrings but I don’t have many earring backs (I use rubber backs) left. Getting more will have to wait for a bit. For the time being I’ve deleted my Esty inventory. I’ll let you know when I put anything up for sale there again.

One of the bracelets I made uses up some of the sandalwood beads from a necklace that Boy finally gave me. I love the scent of sandalwood and having a bracelet made of it pleases me no end. I’ll have to get a picture of it for you to see. I’ve not made another like it thus far.

The best part of the items I ordered is that they’re nickel free. Nickel is usually what people react to in metals. There’s no (or little) nickel in surgical steel and that’s what the earring hooks are made of. The eyepins, chain, bead caps and spacer beads I bought are all nickel free. That can be a selling point of my product. I haven’t found any nickel free wire though. I want some half-hard silver wire that is nickel free, but can’t find any.

Because I’m doing something with my hands, my mind needs to be occupied with other things. I’ve always found it difficult to do only one thing at a time, except for reading. I still prefer to have no noise or distraction when I’m reading. But I bead, do crosswords, crochet, knit, etc. to the television. This means that I’ve been watching movies again. Not new ones, that would be far to radical of me. I’d been watching Scooby Doo DVDs (8 of them), Scooby Doo the movie (the first one), The Avengers, Emperor’s New Groove, Kill Bill (Part 1 and Part 2), and now the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tomorrow I’ll be watching more movies, I don’t know which ones, but I’ll be watching more.

One thing about LOTR I’ve been wondering about. The narrator says at the beginning that the elves are immortal folk. If this is the case, why is it that Arwen’s father is middle aged? Shouldn’t he appear to be in his 20s? I mean, sure, he doesn’t look like suffering from old age, but still, he has wrinkles and looks to be of about the right age to have a daughter the age Arwen is.

Dutchess hunted tonight. There was a rather large moth flying about the living room and she was in very close attendance to it. Alas, being an inside cat has caused her hunting skills to rust and she lost track of the prey as it flew toward my light. More to the point, it was my getting up to get out of the moth’s way (vicious things they are!) that caused her to lose the trail. Hopefully the moth won’t creep up and pounce on me when I’m least expecting it.

I got an email from my thesis supervisor yesterday. She wants to see what I’ve done. Of course, I’ve not done a damned thing since I saw her last. I asked her if I could take a year off the program. By the time a year is up I should be able to get back into doing stuff as I should. By that time Dad will probably have died and things will have settled out emotionally speaking. Either that or I’ll need to step away and not get my Masters degree. Regardless, I can’t do anything right now. It stretches my abilities to deal just going from one day to the next. Working is going to further stress that. It’s hard fighting the inertia I’m feeling. Adding stress to that isn’t going to help me any.

That’s about it for now.

The best news of the week is that my friend’s husband woke up yesterday. The doctor’s are quite pleased which means my friend is more than happy. They’re even expecting him to get up and move around. So, for those of you who sent him prayers, good thoughts and other good things from afar, thank you!

I can’t think of anything else to say. Umm…I did my cardio workout on my own yesterday. My gym partner had in-between-thigh rash from wearing jeans on a hot day so he couldn’t make it to the gym and not look incredibly awkward. I did a quick 20 minute cardio workout and then headed to Admin to get my T2202 form printed since it wouldn’t print properly at home.

It was lovely yesterday. The temperature dropped and it was raining when I got out of the gym. Were it not for my cell phone getting wet (and then the delicate paper of the T2202 form) I would’ve just stood outside and waited for Bran to pick me up. It felt marvellously cool. Now it’s sunny and only 8C. There’s a prediction of snow for tonight. Yeah. Springtime in Saskatchewan.

The major downer I had last week appears to have lifted some. I don’t feel like bursting into tears at any given moment. I’m also not quite as irritable as I was. I’m still not great, but I’m better than I was.

That’s about it from my neck of the woods.

Ta-Ra

What have I been up to? Oddly enough, a fair bit. This is a long entry so get yourself a cup of tea. I’ll wait.

I got some seed beads to work on Bran’s handfast outfit thing I’m making for him. It’s like a priest’s stole but made of beads instead of embroidered cloth. I’m sure it’ll be quite a bit heavier too. Anyway, I picked up lovely red beads and some blue that are drop dead beautiful. It’ll all look really nice when I’m done.

Yesterday was a day of dishes and laundry. I got ALL the dishes done, the stove and counter tops all wiped off and thought about sweeping the floor. Yes, I thought about sweeping the floor. Alas, my back, after standing at the sink to do load after load of dishes, was in no fit shape to wield a broom. Some witch I am, right?

While I was doing that Bran and Boy were hip deep in laundry. Really, we hadn’t done all the laundry in a few weeks, just a couple 0h-I-Have-No-Shirts/Pants/Underwear loads that just did the necessities. It’s still not done yet, there are 3 more loads to go, but they made excellent progress in that. Not only did they do that, but I got the folding nearly done as well.

Boy also dried dishes and pumped up the bike tires. He was an enormous help to us. I just thought I’d put that out there as sometimes he feels under-/unappreciated. Without him the work would’ve taken much longer if it got completed at all.

Then today was an excellent workout. I did a full 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. I didn’t stop to drink water and when I drank I didn’t spill all over myself. I really have to get a bottle with a built in straw. It saves me the embarrassment of looking like a totally uncoordinated slob. I’m only a partially uncoordinated slob.

We also did work on our arms on the weights. I was in the Captain’s Chair and managed to get to 5 leg lifts before my shoulders gave out and I started drooping. We also did weight assisted chin ups (two different kinds) and dips. Then we worked on pecs on two machines and the other of my favourite machines but I don’t remember what it works.

Then it was home to shower (eventually I did) and get ready to go out for sushi with friends. It was wonderful connecting with them again. They’re both good people with good hearts and fabulous senses of humour.

My shower was satisfying. This past week I’ve been dealing with a bit of an emotional dip. Ok, so more than a dip. I tanked earlier in the week and I haven’t recovered from it yet. So my mood is low. So showering is something that fell somewhat by the wayside. It’s hard to be motivated to do anything and getting out of bed to get to work was a major accomplishment. Let’s just say that personal hygiene has been taking a hit.

Anyway, I did shower today. My legs are freshly shorn and moisturized. My hair is fly-away clean (as only curly hair can be) and I smell fresh. I’m hoping to hit the shower at least every second day as a part of trying to lift the mood. We’ll see how that works.

This week has been somewhat distressing as well because of a co-worker/friend’s circumstances. Anyone who has friended me on Facebook will have seen my status thingie about that. She and her hubby went to Edmonton where he could have heart surgery. He has a congenital heart defect and it needed some work. They spent twice as long in surgery as they planned (11 hours) then, because of bleeding and other complications, he had to go back into surgery the next day. He’s currently in critical condition on life support. Though he’s making small improvements there’s the spectre of him not making it. They’re a young couple with two young children. I’ve been sending Reiki left, right, and centre and hoping for the best. I hate it that there’s virtually nothing else I can do in terms of helping.

This added to the general lowness of my mood and had me in tears on Friday night. I don’t usually cry unless there’s some impetus, like a movie or someone hurting my feelings. Just sitting and being weepy isn’t something I normally do. It’s also not a good thing considering that I’m on anti-depressants. This leads me to think that perhaps my dosage needs to be elevated. However, I can’t do that without seeing a physician and my doctor scarpered (see previous post about that) so I don’t have a doctor right now.

Earlier tonight I was called in to work because the person who was to work the 8-12 shift didn’t show up. I got out of the house and was on the way when I got the call that she’d finally turned up. So instead Bran and I headed off the the drug store (pharmacy/apothecary/chemist’s) for cinnamon, antihistamine and junk for Boy and I. We also got a squirt container of liquid soap for the kitchen. The old soap squirt container we had was a long-ago Christmas present from Boy when he was in elementary school. It never did squirt right and recently wouldn’t squirt at all. Thanks to the antihistamines I’ll have less vertigo related nausea when I’m doing things like ab crunches and such. Gotta love being allergic to your pet.

Speaking of pets…Bran managed to do some grooming of her today (or was it yesterday?) and got a kitten. She’s also lost a little bit of body fat thanks to the food she’s been on the past while (older cat/indoor cat). This means that she can take care of her own “intimate” grooming. Of course she has to stop and do it while I’m walking behind her…on my way to the bathroom…first thing in the morning when my bladder is screaming to be emptied. Yeah, she’s such a cat.

When we were leaving to take me to do the work that I didn’t end up doing tonight, I was confused. Somewhere, thanks to the housework we did yesterday, I lost the entire day. I thought today was Saturday and I wasn’t going to work a 4 hour shift, but an entire 12 hour shift.

Oh, one thing about yesterday. I got a pair of ear buds to replace the ones that I lost the rubber thing to. These are Sony buds for sports. They have soft over-the-ear holders and are sound eliminators. They came with a hard case that makes it more difficult to lose bits. They should last a nice long time. They’re quite comfortable to wear and muffle outside noise nicely. Since I won’t be wearing them for outside exercise they’re be quite useful.

I also figured out a way to go on the jogging outings with my gym partner. You see, because of sciatica I can’t jog. It’s what makes standing still for long periods of time painful (remember how dishes made my back blow out? That’s why). The compression of the disc onto the sciatic nerve is the reason jogging (which would cause further compression) isn’t a good idea. However, I have roller blades. So long as I manage to move forward and not land on my butt, I can go along while he runs. He also has a pair of blades so we could zoom along together. Cool, right?

That’s about it. Now I have to label this entry. It’s going to be a long list. Try and pick out the one thing in the labels that I didn’t mention in the entry.

Thanks to Mrs. 4444 I found a new blog to read, State of Grace, a courageous woman (read her blog and find out why I mean this). Anyway, Grace started a new social networking place for women. She explains why she did this on her blog. Anyway, it might be a useful place for you to network with women of similar interests to yourself. Sorry guys, but More Women is for women only. Hmmmm…I wonder if it’s exclusively for women who were born xx or if transgendered women also can join. I’ll ask and find out. Anyway, the site tagline is “Single * Married * Childfree * Empty Nesters * More Than Mommies * POWERFUL!”

I’ve been sleeping a lot lately. Well, I guess sleeping the same amount, just doing it in shifts instead of solid blocks of 8 hours. It seems to have me well rested.

Dad called last night and asked me if I would be deputy executrix of his will. My sister is executrix, but if she can’t carry it out or needs extra help I step in. It’s interesting that Dad asked me to do this considering my older brother (the one who isn’t welcome in my home) lives with Dad. It has me wondering what’s going on. But hey, does it really matter? I told Dad that I would. If Dad’s playing games and having me as one of the people who sees his will is carried out and then decides to not leave me anything I’m ok with that. It’s his stuff and really, when it comes down to it, things aren’t important.

I’ve lived so much of my life without the important factors in my life ranging from healthy self-esteem, having exclusive control of my life (was on welfare for several years), right up to and including, the will to live. Material things were important so long as I was without those important inner self characteristics. After years of hard work and the help of modern medicine I’ve got some healthy self-esteem, thirst for living, and economic self-determination. I also have the love of my son and husband and a kitty that gives hugs. Material things just can’t measure up. So if Dad is playing games, then he’s missing the target. I’ll make sure that his will is followed exactly as he wants. After all, it’s his stuff.

Speaking of stuff, we’re going to be getting rid of a lot of things. We’ve figured out that it’s not likely we’ll be having a yard sale. While we have a fair bit of stuff we need to get rid of, there’s just not enough to supply a good sale. So we’ll sell the egg chair and a few other things that can go for some $$. The rest we’ll just give it away. Some of the stuff isn’t ours. I’m not sure what’s going to be done with that. I just know that I want to declutter.

I’ll be going through the cookbooks for recipes and giving the rest to the cook at work. She has a thing for cookbooks and is always looking for new recipe ideas. I know that with her they’ll find a good home (or if she can’t use it she’ll find it a good home).

Cream of mushroom soup (whatever canned brand suits your fancy) mixed with homemade veggie chili is quite good. That’s what I had for lunch. Mom used to mix cream of mushroom soup with canned vegetable soup. This is a slightly better version of that in that it has more taste flavours and spice. Really, it’s quite good. I’m sure it would rock the Casbah if it were made with homemade cream soup of some sort (potato, mushroom, celery, whatever) instead of the canned variety, but that’s what I had.

I think I’m going to bead weaving tonight. There’s nothing like some murder and mayhem and beading to make my day a thriller, right?

I’ve been working at uncluttering my life. Actually, we all have. We’re getting rid of things that we don’t use, haven’t used in either a very long time or ever but had some sort of emotional attachment to for some reason (like my wedding bouquet that I’d not seen since I packed it away after the wedding and even forgot I had it until I opened the box 21 or 22 years later). I think that’s been a good and healthy thing.

However, there is a line between holding onto things because of an emotional attachment or thinking the item would be handy sometime or even collecting things and hoarding.

What brings this to mind? Well A&E has a new show on called Hoarders. Also because Bran sent me this link posted by a daughter on a forum, now on a separate site.

I’m not saying I’m better than this woman’s mother. My little quirks are different and less obvious. I’m just glad that this isn’t one of the ways the quirks are evinced in my life.

Don’t blame me for the title. I couldn’t think of anything for a title and there’s this turtle sticker in an electrical panel here at work and….never mind.

Here’s what I’ve been up to the past few days.

First, I thought that my computer has 1/2 the harddrive that was advertised on the machine. It turns out they did a partition to have a D drive as well. Go figure. I wonder if my old computer had that too. Hmmm… Anyway, now I have to decide if having the outlet to an alternate video is important enough to me to return the machine. At least I’m not returning it and then finding out about the D drive. Thank goodness for presleep mind wanderings. That saved my self esteem.

I was supposed to go to a housewarming of a friend on Saturday. It turns out I didn’t feel up to going out at all. So I stayed home instead, though Bran and I went out for a late night drive.

On Sunday Bran and I went to the Co-Op to pick up a toilet seat, screws, legs for the end of the bed and some lumber. We got the first three but Bran’s brain stopped working in trying to figure out the lumber calculations he needed so we went home. We have to return the toilet seat because it’s too large (we got an oval one to fit the oval bowl) and we’ll pick up the lumber with his new calculations on Thursday.

Tomorrow is the day I go in and get my student loans processed. Yay! Then in a week to 10 days the federal money will come in. Then I can get the food processor that is for sale at CostCo (with a mini-chopper) and a set of sheets…and a new car because SGI is probalby going to write off the Volvo because of the parking lot incident in May. With the money from the Volvo and some of student loan we should get a decent mobile. We’re hoping for another Jeep, but we’ll get what is best and fits in our budget. (but I hope it’s a Jeep)

I had the whole log weekend off. Monday was “Saskatchewan Day” and was a province wide stat. Because I’m scheduled to work on Reporting Centre (which is what I was hired to work at but only do twice a week instead of 4 shifts a week – but that’s a whole other story that I won’t get into here because it’s work) I don’t work stat holidays. I only work stats if they’re mid-week or if they fall on a weekend that I’m scheduled. So all I get is regular stat pay that everyone gets, only less of it.

Boy has an MRI scheduled for September 1 at 10 pm. Yes, you read that right, “PM”. They’re keeping wait lists down by doing more shifts of MRIs. At least with it being that late he can snooze while the machine bangs away.

I’ve been doing more bead weaving. I made a couple of belt loops (Bran calls them “keepers”) for his man-purses to hold the end of the shoulder strap down. I’ll get a pictures of them posted eventually.

I’m redoing one of the bands that will eventually be part of a ceremonial robe for Bran. I decided I wanted them all equal lengths. On Thursday, when we go out to get lumber and a new toilet seat that fits, I’m going to get some yellow beads (and probably other pretty colours) to make the 4th band (south=red, west=blue, north=green, and yellow=east). Then I’ll be putting a tube of red, black and white beads around the red rope he uses to tie around his waist (white=maiden, red=mother, black=crone) for the three facets of the Goddess.

That’s about it. I want to read blogs and then start a Midsommer Murders movie and bead. I don’t have a whole lot to do otherwise.

Today I woke up at 9 am so that I could phone the doctor’s office and find out when my appointment was. Yesterday, about 10 minutes after I made the appointment and no writing it down, I couldn’t remember when it was for. I thought 10:45, Bran thought 10:15. He was right. I reset the alarm to 9:30 and went back to snoozing.

At the doctor’s office I got a script for Celexa (older version of Cypralex). We changed to Celexa because it’s covered under the drug plan and the newer version isn’t and I wouldn’t be able to get exceptional drug coverage for it. I will be on the same dose of Celexa as the Cypralex but might have to increase.

Also, because of the constant heartburn and that it’s been waking me up. If it’s that bad then it should be taken care of. So now I’ll be taking Ranitidine twice a day.

After that I got the note to request that professors cut me breaks on deadlines for assignments “because of her medical condition”. So hopefully this will relieve the pressure I’m feeling and allow me to get things done at the pace I’m able to push myself and catch up.

My knee doesn’t show any arthritic accumulation on the x-ray, just some fluid build-up. So I’ll be going for physio-therapy and have a requisition for that.

After we finished at the doctor’s office we went to Charlie’s fish market and I got some sushi for being a good girl. Well, ok, it wasn’t for that. It was because a) I wanted sushi, b) we were at the same mall already, c) they make sushi, and d) I’d never been there and wanted to see what they had. The sushi selection was lovely. Only two had raw fish, the rest were either veggie or cooked fish. I got oyster (meh), lobster (sadly, meh), shrimp, a seaweed one I’d never had before (it was good), sea urchen (delicious!), and avocado (delicious!). I was content. They use undyed pickled ginger, so it wasn’t as colourful as it could have been, but it was still yummy. But I’m ahead of myself. We didn’t eat until we got home. I also picked up some instant Miso soup packets. I can take them to work and get a nice quick, low calorie, astronomically high sodium snack.

After the excursion to the fish store (not much in the way of fresh fish, sadly, but tons of frozen fish and more salmon of various types and such than you can shake a kodiak bear at. Anyway, we drove by Divine, which didn’t have a piercing sale advertised in their window and didn’t open for another 5 minutes. Instead we went down to Schmatta downtown. We found a parking spot and went in. I now sport two new piercings in my ear helix. I thought that getting two at the same time would be ok, but next time I’m going to only get one at a time. The first piercing hurt a lot and because everything was all swollen and irritated the second piercing hurt even more. Interestingly my ear doesn’t hurt much at all unless I try to lay on it (as I discovered when I rolled over in bed). They look totally fabulous. Here are a couple of shots I took. They’re a bit fuzzy, but it’s hard to get a good shot when you can’t look through the viewfinder. click to make them bigger:

and

After that we headed to the drug store for the scripts. They didn’t have them ready so I picked up a few other things and Bran got one, a personal groomer to trim his nose and ear hair. I also picked up some Kleenex wet wipe things to have at school, contact lens saline and some cotton balls to use for cleaning the piercings. I know have enough Shoppers points built up to buy $25 worth of stuff.

Oh, the piercing place has the hair dye we talked about, DarkDaughta. All kinds of colour! That totally rocked my boat.

After we were done at the drug store we headed to Wendy’s for Bran’s and Boy’s lunch (and some chicken nuggets for me to augment the sushi lunch) we came home and ate. Then I laid down for a nap. I work graveyards this weekend and have to be at work in an hour. I also have to find something to eat before going but it doesn’t look like I’m going to think of anything. Boy is has Hot Shots Part Deux in the DVD player and they’re busy making fun of every single possible movie made that could be snuck into a movie script (and a few advertisements)…now is the chicken shot ala Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

I have a package waiting at the Co-Op mail depot. That will be the Camelbak Better Bottles and straws that I ordered. They stalled the order because the straws were on back order. I think that’s what is there. It’s way too early for any of the t-shirts I ordered to be in yet.

That’s been my day. I’ll take my reading to work and hope to get more done including beginning the beginnings of my literature review and changing my methods pre-proposal. I also want to get a head start on my monthly report so that I all I have to do later in the week is record the final stats.

Ta-Ra

…because I’m good at it.

I was at school by 8:30 this morning. I actually managed to get some work done. I met with my advisor today and we came up with a plan:

• Get a doctor’s note allowing me extensions on my deadlines enabling me to get through the semester with less stress.
• Change my thesis focus from women’s programs in prison to something easier to handle as an MA thesis, a quantitative study of women’s violence comparing it to men’s violence using the UCR (Universal Crime Report) and the GSS Cycle 18 (victim reported violence) to see if women’s crime has actually increased as politicians and media like to spout, or if it hasn’t but the net widening of policy changes are responsible for the changes. The study from the USA indicated that it was the policy changes, not any real change in the frequency of violence (policy changes like co-charging women who defend themselves in intimate partner violence situations).
• I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning for that note.

1. After the appointment I’ll be going to a jewelry place and getting a couple of holes put in the helix of my left ear.
2. Then I come home and sleep because I work graveyards this weekend.
3. I got my “GRAD SCHOOL It seemed better than getting a real job” t-shirts yesterday. I wore one today and Bran wore the other
4. I’m wearing a pair of Bran’s special diabetic socks. They’re really comfortable.
5. I ordered more t-shirts yesterday using up most of my PayPal money. I got two shirts for Boy and two for me.
6. I’m tired.

…do something.

I’ve not had the wherewithall to do much in the way of entries of late. I’ve done homework, but mostly I’ve retreated into the realm of make believe and watched Law and Order: SVU. Really, that’s been pretty much all I’ve done. Well, I did work, I did eat, I did sleep. I even went to school. But when I wasn’t doing those things I had my face attached to my computer screen watching old episodes.

In other news, I’ve got one of my required three committee members for my MA stuff. I have one more to get, but I’ve not met her and have to meet and talk with her first. I did send her an email. I hope that she gets back to me soon.

I can’t say that life is all beer and skittles. I don’t like beer at all and skittles don’t thrill me much either. The antidepressants have taken the edge off the depression and some of the anxiety, but not enough. I struggle a lot with motivation and doing things that are required of me (as demonstrated by my current obsession with past episodes of SVU). I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow afternoon to assess whether to increase the dose or try another drug.

Boy has started a new semester at school. He says he’s enjoying it thus far. We’ll see how things go for him.

I probably won’t be online much for the next week or so. I have two presentations to prepare for next week and one for the week after. I also have an online assignment required to be done as well as getting a project proposal done for Methods. I’m a titch swamped and since I’m having troubles with concentration it’s best I focus what little I have on school work.

I’m sure things will change. Please be patient.

Let’s see…when did I last do an entry that resembled complete…well, going back a month is just too long, so I’m just going to wing it.

I’m nearly done with school. Tomorrow I’m going in to school to work on my Aboriginal Law and Women final. It shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve got lots of notes and I figured I’d deal with things according to the syllabus. That way I’ll be sure to cover most of the materials and also still be able to have a good focus. My focus is going to be self-identity and definition. That should be good enough. It’s the kind of final where the prof is going to get different directions from different people instead of stock answers from everyone.

After this class comes the term project for Methods using quantitative data from the GSS (General Social Survey) cycle 18 (victimization). That one is due on the 18th. I should be able to do fairly well. I need to review what is required for the project itself, including any literature reviews (which should be really short because of it being methods, not theory), then I have to go through all the processes of statistical analysis that we did through the year, which reminds me, I have to take my SPSS workbook with me. Hopefully that’ll help me. I’ll be trying to get that done ASAP because I’m wanting to get the photos of my jewelry done and online before I go back to concentrating on school. I hold out no promises though. Stats are not mu forte.

The term paper was hell on wheels. Really, I’m very relieved that I got the research done, but that month or so I spent at the beginning of term being all i-can’t-get-used-to-being-back-in-school. I spent far too much time procrastinating and far too little doing the readings I needed to get done. So during the Christmas break I’m going to be reading ahead for the classes I have, finding the text book for the Criminology class I’ll be taking, and working on the literature review for my Theory class. However, that doesn’t start until tomorrow.

Life at work is proving to be interesting. I discovered some news recently that will affect my working there. However, I’m going to leave that for about a month or so, then I’ll take care of it. This way any news I received is filtered through time. It will also give more time to have more influence in what I need to do. I’ll let you know whether it’s successful. If not, you’ll know because I’ll be (voluntarily, of course) unemployed. At that point it will most definitely be their loss, because I’m great.

Life at home is ok. Bran’s not been feeling well. We haven’t gotten the Jeep fully assessed as to how much the damage will be. That is on the books for tomorrow after Boy and I go to school. Thus far, though, it doesn’t look promising. I really would rather not have to deal with a totalled vehicle, especially if they undervalue it.

Boy is doing well. He got his head shaved by Bran on Monday night. I didn’t see him until this afternoon when he got home so it was a bit of a surprise to see all his emo type hair gone. Oh well, this means that his forehead won’t have hair piled on it keeping in all the oils and stuff exacerbating any acne he might get.

Our upstairs neighbour is being annoying. We work very hard to be good neighbours, but she’s got a thing about sound. We aren’t really that noisy, the television is sometimes loud because of movies and Boy sometimes has his music on a bit too loud, but a phone call works. Last night she rang the doorbell and bitched at Bran about the tv being too loud. I watched the end of the show and just turned it off. I’m waiting for the time when there is no electronics playing and she comes storming down and I can bitch her out about stomping around the house like the Hulk on a bad day. I swear, she doesn’t weight more than 110 pounds but there have been times when I thought she was going to come through the floor.

We’ve got all kinds of toys around the hosue for kitty. Last night I discovered one hanging from the dining room entrance. It’s a kind of skunk looking thing on an elastic that clips to the frame of doors to dangle. You’ve seen the top of the kitty tower. I don’t know as though she goes in the bottom parts, but she’ likes to nap there and look out the window. Bran showed me one of the kitty treats he got. It’s a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement for kitties. She’s going to have healthy joints.

Bran’s Yule present arrived yesterday. Now that he’s seen it, you can too. It’s a t-shirt with Reiko’s first crush from the comic Contemplating Reiko. The logo for Tainted Ink is a fairy puking into an ink bottle. I love it! He loved the t-shirt. Now all I have to do is figure out what in heaven’s name to do for Boy.

I heard from my sister about her visit with Dad. He was going to come up this past weekend but because the weather was so unstable he changed his mind. Anyway, he shut her down. I’m thinking that if I get to see Dad sometime soon maybe I’ll broach the subject to him as well. I’ve had a whole lot more practise arguing with men than she has. I mean, I have arguments daily.

Supper’s on, so I’m going to eat now. That’s pretty much all I can think of anyway.

Ta-Ra