My life, it is often a fascinationg place and continues to be so.

More as details shake out.

...is somehow always a recipe for drunkenness, emotional avoidance and emotional openness, all in one, for better or worse.

It's 10:30. I'm already quality done. And LJ apparently hates me. So does the world.

Can I go home now?

So, I was grocery shopping this morning at 3:30AM, which is apparently when the donut truck rolls in. OMG... The bakery smelled so good! I caved when I saw they had Honeymooners, my favoritest ever type of donut - white cake, chocolate frosting, a splat of cream frosting and a custard filling. Nummy. I even held off until the checker lady had rung it up... I happily munched as she rang up my goods...

One bite. Two. (scrape off some of the cream splat) Three. (huh...) Four.

Oh, fail!

I got defective merchandise! No custard filling! Tragedy. :/

...at least it wasn't a completely wasted trip - I got the party supplies plus a reusable divided plastic plate... in kitchen green. :) Yay for food segregation on a pretty plate!

Most days, I love my job. It's hard, thankless work, but good work. I know I am making a difference and providing very necessary services...

But some days, it seems that I'm fighting an endless tide of poverty, lack of education, mental illness, and society's inability to show human decency to its least members.

I came home with a fatigue and a headache I just could not shake. I had a lot to get done for WW tonight and thankfully had some help getting it done, but I still need to pack tomorrow and drive out to site. I decided to take the day off from work - I have just too much for the event that still needs prepping and I am just too tired to face the work problems again tomorrow.

Usually, I like Boston Legal and I thought watching a few episodes while working on handwork would be pleasant, but with a running theme of mental illness, drugs, various flavors of love, Alzheimer's, and euthanasia, it did little to lighten the mood.

Anyway. Off to Boscobel tomorrow. Expect a report next week, probably not on Sunday night. :P

When we last left our heroine, it was late Monday night and I was gearing up for the Wedding Week.

As planned, Tuesday was all about frantic cleaning and prepping beds, etc. With some assistance, I managed to pull it together and th house was acceptable by evening. Round One of houseguests showed up with a son in tow, so an extra bed was hastily made at bedtime, but otherwise things proceeded more or less according to plan.

Wednesday was not quite so kind. I hit the snooze or turned off the alarm or something and so did not get up in time to get all the rooms flipped for the incoming Round Two of houseguests (Round One having left before I got up). I had to get to a conference on the other side of town, however, so there was no option to just waltz into work a little late and I resorted to leaving a note of apology. Round Two arrived safely while I was out and when I got home I got to meet mightyjesse's momma and sister. Shopping and practice and social all went as expected, but I had a terrible revelation at the end of the night. I had the *perfect* dress for the wedding... well, perfect except that it was curve-hugging, floor length black synthetic VELVET and the forcast for Saturday was hot and sticky. :P I sort of wanted to stay conscious for the wedding, so some power shopping was in order.

Thursday after work  reneekytokorpi and I went powershopping at The Maul. We were efficient and hit all the likely stores in about an hour and a half. :) It turned out that mightyjesse was at The Maul too (and sirzig's mommy, oddly enough) so we hung out with her for a bit and then returned to purchase the "winner" dress and a cute pair of strappy sandals. I usually don't like shoes that show too much of my foot, but these were a cute little glossy black 'n' strappy pair with a kitten heel that really complimented the dress and I figured I could actually wear for most of the day. I got home to find that cakes had begun to take over the house - eventually there would be cakes in the fridge, cakes in the party fridge, cakes in the basement, and cakes on the counters. I was pretty sure the air in the house was highly caloric. ;) Late Thursday night Round Three of guests arrived - more Liz siblings and Mr. S from out west but it was late enough there were no hijinx and everyone sought their bed promptly.

Friday I slept in and then ran some errands before heading out to the official beginnings of the Wedding Goodness. There was the rehearsal where I successfully did not kill the minister, then dinner out, then some party goodness (even if doc_jock  would not let me "help"), and lots of decorating of the hall. In all the merriment and Scotch, however, the flowers just never got arranged, so we followed the "postrevel" back over to Sir G's and took over his kitchen. Luckily, there I also found some willing helpers and there even were tasks for the drunks, so mightyjesse  was able to head home at an only slightly-unholy hour and I did not have to complete it all on my own. Nonetheless, we were still up messing round with flowers until 4:30am and some of the finishing work was left to be completed on Saturday morning. Er, I guess, later that morning. :P By the time we took another guest to his crash space and got back to my place it was full 5:30am and I found Miss teffan asleep on the couch, bringing the census at EHWG up to ten for the night.

Saturday I slept in as late as I dared and then got ready for the wedding. fencingkitty was nice enough to both cut my hair and run out for lunch so I could stay in my jammies until I had eaten lunch and so would not ruin the dress with mustard. (I'd like to think I am more graceful than that, but I know better...) The rest of the day passed in a blur - seeing the beautiful bride and her stunning dress for the first time, a flurry of photographs both inside the church and out, then the beautiful but hot and almost teary ceremony, then the receiving line, a quick site-check to make sure all our stuff was out, picking up the cakes and buckling them in securely, the reception, the toasts, the CAKE!, a few hellos and half a dance and then it was time for cleanup. Whew!  By then I felt like all my joints were going to either lock up or come entirely unhinged, so I tried to work double-time, the faster done the faster I could sit down, I figured. Once the site was cleared, I stopped home briefly to change, then headed back to Sir G's for the after-party. As I suspected, I didn't last terribly long into the night, but my ride just scraped me off the couch when it was time to head home. Congrats and all wished of happiness to the newly-weds!

Sunday was another late-sleeping day, thank goodness. Then there was lunch out and the last good-byes before I had to scurry out to General Meeting. Half-way there I got spanked for all my weekend misdeeds with a nasty migraine - luckily Mistress S agreed to drive me home with Sir D following, so I didn't have to try to drive myself back. I collapsed for a few hours, called my mom, and did some basic email catch-up and then tried to get back to sleep. Sadly, sleep didn't happen until almost 5 AGAIN (not my fault this time, I swear), so I've been sort of a zombie again today and am looking forward to an early night to bed.

It's been a long week, with much happiness and joy, but fair measures of busy-ness and personal yuck too, so I am looking forward to the coming, quieter weeks... Oh yeah, my mom's big summer party near the UP is this weekend and I leave for WW in eight days. Scratch the quieter weeks - I'll sleep when I'm dead!

Oi. It's been awhile since I posted. I'm not dead - just very, very tired.

Last weekend was Border Skirmish and a ton of yardwork. Consequently, I hurt like the dickens all week long. :/

Thursday, I drove out to Sioux Falls for Bardic Madness. I got to town, ran some errands, met up with my host, and collapsed.

Friday I slept in, which was lovely, but then had to deal with work BS before being treated to a pleasant lunch out. The afternoon was consumed with woodburning 60 items for WW's Baronesses' Whim followed by a tasty lamb dinner. I went out to the Bardic Madness site and helped set up, trying not to annoy gflower  too much with my OCD, which the Border Downs folk know enough just to point and laugh at. :P We rounded out the night taking in a show, but I was pretty beat by then and happy to just fall into bed.

Saturday morning came entirely too early and I was sort of discombobulated - it took several trips to the car before I had brought in everything I needed. The event itself was a lot of fun - good challenges, good classes, good company. I even *eeep* taught my first class at bardic Madness - "A Voice for your Song" - essentially it was a persona research class masquerading as a Bardic class, but my point was that you can use some of the same techniques to produce a consistent voice or set of images in your bardic pieces as you use to create a cohesive persona. Feast was good and filling and all too soon the event was over.

In the evening, I had opted to go see a band play rather than going to the PostRevel, which ended up having its pros and cons... The party was in full swing by the time we got there, by which I mean that most of the guests at the party were lit. I was not particularly comfortable with the obviously drunk guys setting off fireworks, or the older drunk grabby guy, or the crude joke contest going on in the corner. :P The show I went to see was good, but by the time the show (and the three-dog fight that erupted between guests' dogs) ended, I was more than ready to leave. Sadly, bed was a two hour drive away, and I'm afraid I was not good company, dropping off repeatedly along the way.

Sunday morning started inauspiciously with a "wake-up call" from an impetuous little boy. We'd slept in considerably, but not yet enough to make up for the previous day's activities, so I was a little cranky. A shower helped some, breakfast helped a bit more, but I was a little off for most of the day. I got to spend some time working on components for the next round of handsewing kits. (One of the highlights of the weekend was selling the very last of the original 50 kits! Yay! On to the next 50...) Dinner was an amazing salad and thick, grilled steaks. Nummy. We played a round of pples to Apples, but I did poorly since the field included four adults I barely knew and two children. :P We got a late start back for Sioux Falls and brain weasels got the best of me en route. I tried to explain, but mostly ended up just being unintelligible due to tiredness and my chronic inability to adequately express anything with emotional content. It got somewhat better by the end of the night, at least. :/

Today, I slept in a bit and caught lunch in town before hitting the road... But then the rest of today was made of fail too, just for fun. I gave a ride a few exits east to a lady who was stranded in MN - I figured there was no harm in taking her just a few miles - but she ended up being just odd to the point of being surreal... Massive construction around Tomah added about 45 minutes,  I got a call indicating an errand I'd thought was not urgent must needs be run tomorrow (along with the other 4,000 things I need to do), and another call informing me that the formulary was rejected AGAIN and I have until Thursday afternoon to fix it. Awesome. :/

Tomorrow should be hot and sticky and simply not long enough... I need to clean and do house stuff like crazy AND fix the formulary. Tomorrow night round 1 of guests will arrive. Wednesday morning I need to be up early to change all the linens and reconfigure the beds as soon as Round 1 leaves since Round 2 will arrive while I am out all day at a conference. Thursday will hopefully see the arrival of round 3 of guests and a full day of work. Friday will be a day off, but only from work - from there until the end of the weekend, it'll be wall-to-wall wedding goodness...

Ugh. I have something like twelve projects started in my living room (to say nothing of the upstairs bath and assorted electronic projects) but apparently don't have the strength, attention span, and/or will to finish any of them. :P

I need a spare week, an extra helping of motivation and a small army of minions. Anybody have those lying about?

Multiple brain weasels are annoying enough on their own... but I really wish these two would not try using the hamster wheel at the same time - one trying to run sun-wise and the other widdershins. :/

Ugh. Lovely night tonight, right up until the part where I was congratulating myself on finishing up #7 for my April Thing-a-Day and was thinking about posting them. Then, I put down the woodburner, which immediately rolled off the table and onto the floor. Oh, but not onto the tile or carpet, that would have been too simple! On to the neck pillow over-filled with tiny styrofoam beads! Which promptly burst and spewed little foam beads everywhere. >:/

So - pillow with depleted stuffing and a hard-edged hole where the cover melted, a woodburner ruined by being covered in melted dinosaur by-product, and a room that smells like ass. Perfect end to the night.

Serves me right for having synthetics about, I suppose. :p

I was using this website for some patient education materials and ran across some interesting entries under the calories per hour function. I thought it would be interesting to look into how many calories are burned with various SCA (or SCA-type) activities.

Getting to the event -
Suitcases - packing and unpacking - 136 calories in 1 hr
Loading - car (and unloading) - 204 calories in 1 hr
Driving - light vehicle (e.g., car, pick-up) - 136 calories in 1 hr
Pumping Gas - 136 calories in 1 hr

Arts and Sciences -
Bookbinding - 156 calories in 1 hr
Contra Dancing - 306 calories in 1 hr
Dancing - belly - 306 calories in 1 hr
Ironing - 156 calories in 1 hr
Knitting - 102 calories in 1 hr
Reading - sitting - 88 calories in 1 hr
Sewing - domestic - 102 calories in 1 hr
Singing - sitting - 102 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - pressing - 272 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - weaving - 238 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - sewing, with machine - 170 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - cutting - 170 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - sewing, by hand - 136 calories in 1 hr
Tailoring - general - 170 calories in 1 hr
Writing - sitting - 122 calories in 1 hr

Martial Activities -
Fencing (sport) - 408 calories in 1 hr

Court -
Acting  204 calories in 1 hr
Meetings - attending - 102 calories in 1 hr

Feast and Postrevel -
Eating - sitting - 102 calories in 1 hr
Socializing - sitting (talking, eating) - 102 calories in 1 hr
Whirlpool - sitting - 68 calories in 1 hr

All values from: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

*sigh* The house is quiet and empty, after a long, busy, stressy weekend.

Friday I did a lot of cleaning and prep work for the event, houseguests, and the Strawberry Party, plus a run out to site to drop off banners, the high seat, and miscellaneous other critical items. (I did not get to quite everything I had wanted to do but since we had lost power on Thursday night I was somewhat behind on my chores to begin with.) I made experimental sourdough bread and sloe cheese as I was waiting for folks, and they turned out acceptable, if not quite what I was looking for, but such is the nature of experimental cooking. All the expected guests got in safely and we even had some folks who were staying at a local hotel drop by for awhile for a Scotch tasting. Once the guests were back at their hotel or abed downstairs, I made a quick run out to the grocery store, showered, and then hit the hay myself around 2AM.

Saturday morning came entirely too early - I started getting "can you bring..." texts and emails about ten minutes before my alarm went off, and that set the tone for the day - things were busy-busy-go-go-go!, but that was probably for the best anyway. I'd planned to get on site by 8AM, figured it would be more like 8:30, but finally got there around 9AM. The first part of the morning was consumed with dropping off requested items then setting up the A&S and getting the entrants settled. I had set up four 8' long tables, thinking that would be one more than necessary, but by the end of the afternoon, all the available space and some of the windowsills were full! Somewhere I have a complete count of all the entrants, but we easily had thirty very high quality entries, so I was mightily pleased. When HrRM's champion was not on site right before court, for a brief, shining moment, it looked like I might be able to carry the axe into court, but then he showed up at the last moment and the axe was wrested from me again. (*pout*) Ah well, Coronations involve enough up-and-down for me anyway - between being called for the end-of-reign thanks, the creation of a new Pyxis, and the oaths, I spent a lot of time pacing the aisle. :P goldfrog  and R's last court was simple, but touching - I'll miss having them on the throne, even though I'm sure S&A will do a fine job themselves.

After court, I checked in with A&S again, got only a few moments to chat with friends from near and far, then went to investigate lunch. I was hoping to fight and so decided to pass on the Scotch egg and instead settled for a granola bar for lunch before hitting the rapier field. The Queen Mum's tourney was a lot of fun, but I am still woefully out of practice and so slooooow and messy. :/ However, I brought out the pretty buckler for the first time in about two years, so there were a lot of folks who had not seen it before and I got a lot of compliments on it. I got to play with Duke T, fencert , and some other fun fights before having to bow out of the tourney to attend the WW meeting. The meeting went well, with nothing earthshattering, but some good groundwork laid. Then I had about 20 minutes free wherein I went to go check on dread_ex  and was hoping to see cass_lee 's pelican-y business, but I had to go attend TRMs at the A&S before the principles were able to be collected. As part of the A&S display, I had all the entrants who were able attend their work at 4PM for the opportunity to discuss it directly with TRMs. I think it went over well and gave TRM the chance to meet some of the artisans and learn a bit more about their arts. After TRMs departed, I met with a small panel of peers to choose the Peer's Prize winner and counted all the beans to determine the Populace Prize winner. Right quick, it was time for court prep and evening court. There were some very pleasing bits of business on the docket, but many of them are confidential for now, so I'll keep them to myself. I can report that the winner of the Populace Prize was S for his wire weave, the winner of the Peer's Prize was rezansky  for his handsewn and embroidered tunic, and the winner of the Royal Prize was G for his multi-item entry. It was a near thing in almost all of the categories, though, since there were so many really excellent entries - both TRMs and the Peers had to discuss at some length before making a decision and the choice was in part dictated by HrRM's wish that each category have a different winner. 

Following evening court, valkyr8 and I discussed new bags for the Jara High seats as the ones that I made simply are not working. I got the car partially packed and then headed down for feast. Wow! Feast was one to remember and arebekah  really outdid herself! In addition to the truly tasty set menu, over a dozen guest cooks presented a dish to the head table and one of the lower tables to be judged on taste and presentation. The lovely and talented relativelylucid's pudding won for taste (yum! and I usually don't like that sort of thing) and the E&A team won for presentation. I do have to say that tcsumner had a really marvellous hyppocras, though - I'm afraid that coming so late in the feast, it may have suffered from sensory overload. :P I packed up with all haste and headed home, where the Strawberry Party was already in full swing. I quickly put to rights the few things that still needed to be set up or corrected (the original plan for set-up crew had been foiled by car trouble but things had gotten more-or-less rolling anyway) and then started pouring the frilly drinks. cass_lee  and one of the party guests kindly went out for more ice and strawberries when it became obvious how much had already been eaten by the time I got in. However, they returned quickly and the sweet freezy drinks flowed freely. Usually, I outlast my guests' energy, but between being sore from fighting, the giant dinner, and otherwise it having been a very taxing day, I shooed out the last of the guests around 2:30 when I simply could not stay awake any longer.

I was out so completely, I never even heard katrionans  and her brood leave, nor did I hear iarroganti  moving about and once again being so helpful with the party clean up, nor did I hear corvusjoyous  come in and drop off my oven, roaster and other assorted things lent to the feast. :P Thanks for your assistance, folks, and I'm sorry I was a bad hostess - I finally came to sometime around noon and then with barely enough time to have lunch with the last of the guests and see him out the door.

The rest of today contiinues to be busy - more clean up, dinner to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday, then General Meeting. Ooof. Off I go!

So, most soothing activity at the end of a crappy day?

Drunken research.

I'm a freak.

Some days I wish I drank something stronger than Scotch.

Well, in sum it was a good weekend, if not entirely according to plan.

Thursday, I stayed home from work because I was planning on going to Ides of March, an eight hour drive from Madison, and I was miserably stuffed up from a cold again. (I swear, I don't know what has been up this winter - I have been more consistently ill with stoopid viruses than ever before in my life...) regular applications of zinc, Vitamin C, and the neti pot worked wonders, however. Friday I spent in Sioux Falls working on my project for the A&S Throwdown at Ides and then going out to a local bar where some friends and friends of friends were playing. It made for a late, but enjoyable night.

Saturday, we hit the road at a reasonable hour and headed out to the site. Since there had been no schedule available, I had been concerned that I was going to miss the Throwdown. (I was mocked for my anal-retentive need for a schedule, but I am used to having things happen at a set time, dammit, and I'd put a lot of time into my entry, so I was a little anxious. :P) As it turns out, the mocker was correct - it had not started by the time we got there. Sadly, I soon also found out that it was not going to happen at all, since the instigators were all trapped in Fargo by the flooding. Sadness. Completely understandable, but still sad. I hope they decide to hold it at another future event and I hope it will be one I can attend... With no down-n-dirty A&S fun to be had, I spent the day working on some sewing projects and kibitzing with the other string-folks. There had been some rapier (two fighters) in the morning, but we arrived too late and I had not grabbed my gear out of the car anyway. Heavy weapons had four or five combatants and I think at least one authorization. We did run an A&S bean count, so there was at least some A&S goodness, which made me feel somewhat better. A mid-afternoon ice cream run was a highlight of the afternoon though - I have no idea how long it has been since I've had a Blizzard. Nummy. Feast was also nummy and the ice cream didn't even ruin my supper. :) We stopped by the "postrevel" at the local hotel, but the hot tub was FULL of soap suds but barely lukewarm. Plus, the hot tub was populated by some working men who were feeding beers to clearly underage kids, so I went to go hang out in the hotel room with missdoom  and S - we were shortly joined by most of the other SCA folks who were also creeped out by the underagers. We got back to SooFoo quite late, but I managed to stay awake all the way home after being drawn (baited?) into an involved peerage/politics discussion. A good day, if not quite what I'd planned.

Sunday was quieter - sleeping in, brunch, lazing about, bottling some mead, out for a very nice dinner, a movie, and bed at a reasonable hour. Monday morning I got up, took my leave from my host, collected zarhooie  for a nice brunch at the Cracker Barrel, and then drove home. Other than the high winds (oi! my aching shoulder! I'd already slept on it wrong the night before!) and the adventure with the Pit of Undercarriage Despair (see previous post), the drive was uneventful. I'm actually coming to like the long road trips, in a way. I like listening to NPR and, in the few places where I can't get NPR in clearly, I'm remembering that there ARE some flavors of country music I don't hate. (gasp!) I still detest the old whiney stuff and the new I-wanna-be-a-pop-star-in-cowboy-boots stuff, but there is some pretty good stuff out there now and again and in the vast expanses of southern Minnesota, usually one of the 16 country stations you can get at any point is playing something acceptable. But then, I'm often a complete sucker for a story, a melody, and a guitar. Double points if there's a fiddle. Dinner tonight was oh-so-exciting leftovers of a dinner I made. On one hand, I know I get spoiled on my weekends away, but on the other, any day when I get cheesy hashbrowns TWICE, I really can't complain.


'Night all.

On the way out to South Dakota for Ides of March this weekend, I stopped to get gas. (OK, so I had failed to stop to get gas in a timely manner and my car had been crying for some miles, past several exits without gas stations.) Finally, an exit for Houston claimed to have a gas station. While that sign was *technically* correct, it failed to mention that the gas station was some miles off the main drag, which I figured out too late, and at that point I needed to stick it out since I was running on fumes. So, several miles down the road, I finally find the "gas station," - a single rather rickety looking pump in front of a dilapidated building. The front window is so dirty I cannot see whether there are lights on inside or not and the door is near-covered in poorly-spelled handwritten signs, roughly 70's vintage by the look of them. There does not appear to be anyone around at the gas station or anywhere on the street.

(Cue zombie movie music.)

There being no credit card slot on the ancient gas-only-comes-in-one-grade pump, I went in the store to see if I needed to prepay. Not better. The inside is filled with broken... stuff. Some of it is clearly car related, some I'm not so sure, but there are piles of rusty, dusty things everywhere... or at least everywhere that there is not oily cans and rags. I locate a fellow in the back room, behind the 100% manual ancient-typewriter-type-key cash register, and explain I'd like to buy some gas he tells me (displaying all three of his teeth) that the pump is not locked. On one wall there is a handwritten sign (clearly dated from the early 80's) saying that no personal checks are allowed. I have the presence of mind to ask whether I may pay by credit card and of course the answer is cash only. (Now, I rarely carry cash, but thank the gods for the $20 petty cash I stash in my car for emergencies - granted, it is much more often used-book related emergencies than cash-only gas station emergencies, but there you have it.) So, I go back out and carefully pump no more than $20 of gas. I go back in and tell the fellow my total and hand him the $20. He looks at me, looks somewhat suspiciously at the  twenty, squints at the register and slowly, deliberately, and apparently with some mental effort, pokes in the transaction and counts out my $1.23 in change. "Change," he dully said as he handed it to me. I muttered some pleasantries about thanks and nice day and fled, really pretty sure that the zombies were going to come crawling out of the piles of stuff in the corners at any second. It was good to get back in the car and out of there! :P 

******

Sadly, I did not learn my lesson adequately. On the way home, I was fighting a serious crosswind and so had significantly less-good mileage than I usually get out of the Fabulous Fit and was running alarmingly low as I approached Austin. I pulled off at the first exit (Austin City Limits?) and drove onto the driveway the name-brand gas station. Except that said driveway was loose gravel. Loose gravel with a pit big enough to eat the Fabulous Fit in a single gulp. I saw said Pit of Undercarriage Despair just in time and swerved around it. I can't believe they did not have it marked in some manner because really, if it had been other than broad daylight, the hole was right in front of the entrance, just past a little camouflaging rise, and I never would have seen it in time. Big mighty trucks may have cleared it, high-clearance vans may have been OK, but little compact cars? No way. Barely a snack for the Pit. I quickly filled the tank and carefully circumnavigated the Pit. Perhaps less dramatic than the adventure on the way out, but enough to make me think about the pattern...

******

This weekend's adventures confirms the Hixton (pronounced Hick's-ton) Rule - if a town's name advertises trouble and/or defects- Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!  (If you have never stopped in Hixton, WI, I would really recommend you not... ask for the story some time.) Apparently, Texas should be avoided too...

Well, I suppose we can make an exception for the main Austin exit, though, but ONLY for the purpose of suspicious tinned meat products - the Spam Museum being one of the great joyous wonders of Minnesota, after all. ;)

This past weekend was lovely, if exhausting.

Thursday night I stayed up entirely too late waiting for a friend to get in and consequently collapsed into bed in short order.

Friday I woke up bright and early (OK, at 11, but that is bright and early when bedtime was at 5AM) and took delivery of my new baby. I am now the proud owner of a lovely loom!



She's a four harness, six treadle, 42" wide loom from Kessenich. I'm not warping her up until next week because I have too much to do between now and this weekend, but soon, SOON, there will be the weave-y goodness!

Then there was lunch on Monty's Blue Plate Diner, some online research, and the drive down to Chicago. We went to go see a bunch of bands, primarily TYR, which was a lot of fun, if not what I am used to. After the show we sat around with various folks from the band and chatted for some time. Much of the topics were out of my ken, but geeking is good in all its glorious forms... The drive back home was loooooonnnnnnggggg, especially since we did not pull in until something like 6AM. Ooof.

Saturday afternoon, we had a number of folks planned to come over for projecty goodness. However, W and I could not make it, J got sick, dread_ex  was lazy, ysolt  and  knappenp  arrived late, and mightyjesse  arrived even later, so it was a much smaller crew than planned. As usual, I had WAY too much food, even after not making several of the dishes I had planned. :P Much projecty goodness was had but things broke up around 10:30PM or so and we headed to bed shortly thereafter, successfully making it to bed before 4AM for the first time that weekend.

Sunday we slept in, lazed about a bit, went out for brunch, and then were sitting around relaxing when my dad come in to town a bit earlier than expected. I said good-bye to my company, went out to dinner with my dad and then spent the rest of the night working on my smack-down project.

Monday was work, research, photocopying and Frosties with reneekytokorpi , and then more research until late.

Today, I worthless as I have the beginnings of a horrid cold AGAIN. >:/  I am not usually this persistently ill and it is starting to annoy me. (I know, I know, my own fault with the late nights, yadda, yadda, yadda... I'm still cranky.) Soooo much to do... sooooo little time to do it in.....

So off I go to get done what I may, although I am becoming concerned that I may not have the smack down things done in time. :/ *sigh* Here goes nuthin'

...but today I had a bit of an issue finding my car. :P I've gotten so used to parking it in the garage, I had a moment of confusion when it wasn't there this morning. I'd just parked it in the driveway, but there was a moment of intense panic about where the hell my car had gotten to...

Once I got to work it was a somewhat better day. I am awaiting the release of the formulary training for 2010. It was supposed to be out last week, but there are some technical glitches. My life will be busy again once it comes out, though, so I am somewhat enjoying the quiet. Once we start the process, it is a lot of hurry up and wait as formulary versions are submitted, reviewed, inevitably rejected, revised, re-submitted, rinse, repeat. :P However, I had a great meeting this afternoon - I love working for a granola-head company - we are encouraged to take walks for excercise, while we are thinking through a problem, or while having small meetings. I went on a walk with my co-worker, one of the medical directors and the NP practice lead for about an hour. It was part fun and part serious, but it was all out in 70 degree sunshine, so it was definitely a win.

Tuesday afternoons I always have an indoor meeting (since several people teleconference for it) that discusses requests for non-covered and high cost items. Today, we had a request for a fire-retardant apron, really an item more like a barber's drape, for a patient who has Huntington's but continues to smoke and so keeps burning herself accidentally. There was some discussion about whether this is a clothing item (not covered), a saftey item (maybe covered), a device that promotes smoking (not covered) or what. Apparently, the patient currently has no desire to quit smoking... I think I broke some of the nurses when I suggested that, if we were going to bend the rules and provide clothing, we may as well have it be clothing to deter smoking - how 'bout a kerosene shirt? :P They were horrified, but that ended the talk of supplying clothing and focused us on recommending smoking cessation as the better option, which was sort of the point anyway. Sometimes, I'm not particularly nice. Effective, but not necessarily nice...

This evening has been marginally productive - mightyjesse and I made a quick visit to Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store, then to a Chinese buffet, and finally home for some Scotch and sewing to celebrate St Paddy's Day. In all, a good, relaxing day. If I make it to bed at a reasonable hour, it may be a near-perfect evening.