Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Technically, today was cooler than the past few days. Technically. I’m not actually sure I believe it, but maybe it’s the heat catching up with me. I am more than ready to be on vacation. Seriously. I have dealt with double my quota of stupid people today. Stupid people and heat make me cranky all by themselves… together, monster-cranky.

So here is a pretty flower from my garden. It makes me less cranky. Sleep, sleep will be nice for reducing the cranky too I think. I love sleep. Yay sleep. Good night!

tags: flowers, heat, photographs, photography, roses, stupid people, weather

Hot days like these call for polar bears.

I borrowed slyppi’s shopping karma today, sort of in exchange for some zen I loaned her earlier in the week. I had extraordinary good luck at Kohl’s and Fashion Bug. I ended up with a dress for the wedding next Saturday without too much trauma! I also found 2 fabulous tops for work, 2 casual tops and 2 piratey tops (one is even pink to help me embrace my “pirate chickness” - I even have a flag). Finally, I snagged an awesome dress - black lace over red slinkyness. It wasn’t an awesome dress when I tried it on a few months ago and it was $70. But, at $14 this dress qualifies for awesome status.

I have also achieved a great deal of pleating in the past 36 hours. Stupid Fop pants. They still need buttonholes, but the cuffs and waists are pleated into their appropriate sizes. I hope. Can I mention one more time that I hate pleats? Yes? Good. I hate pleats. A lot. They tweak the little OCD chick in the back of my head and I end up using a zillion pins when I probably shouldn’t have to. There’s probably a better, easier and faster way. In fact, I expect an e-mail from my mother in the morning telling me there is indeed a better, easier and faster way to put in pleats and that I’m a silly goose for not realizing sooner.

I also finally got around to doing a mock-up of a Viking apron dress. I’ll be having Gertrude help me tomorrow with cutting the hem right. Then I’ll rip it apart and cut one or two out of real fabric. The apron dress does not involve any pleats. I’m excited by this. I’d rather do dags than pleats. The apron dress doesn’t involve dags either, it’s okay. I have a ridiculous list of things I’d like to get sewn for Pennsic. I think if I get a quarter of it done, I’ll be doing well.

This weekend has been stupidly hot. I hope all the folks at EKWC are drinking their water. Well, at this hour they’re probably drinking something else, but I hope they drank their water all day! I have been chugging ice water today. I was reminded earlier why I don’t usually drink ice water - I drank 2 big glasses very quickly. Ugh. Oops. I’m glad I could spend the day being productive in air conditioning. I am a wimp when it comes to heat. I skipped war camp this weekend in the interest of not starting Pennsic already cranky about heat. I’d be fine with a cold Pennsic this year - days in the mid-70s, nights in the low 60s or 50s… Yeah, that would be lovely.

Right, now it’s time to go to bed, but not to sleep… I haven’t finished Jhegaala yet.

tags: clothing, garb, heat, pennsic, sales, sca, sewing, shopping, weather

We had some fun thunder and lightning earlier and the heat has finally broken a bit. It’s down to 75° F out there right now. If it weren’t nearly midnight I might be more excited by the low temps.

I ordered from Threadless again. I blame my dear friend and coworker Andy who mentioned them casually the other day. I popped over to learn that my favorite t-shirt now comes in their super-soft custom brand and it was all down hill from there. I even got The Fop a shirt, because I’m just that kind of darling girl. And the package you see pictured here with Mr. Paw? That’s from Threadless. There’s nothing like being awesome.

Work is being its usual adventure. I got bogged down with spreadsheets that I’m pretty sure I still don’t fully understand as well as miscellaneous other “do this now please - it’s urgent” items. Always fun even if these things derail my usual plans.

I already feel like summer is flying by and it’s only June 10th - in many ways, summer has barely begun! I really need to readjust my mindset to Pennsic being the middle of summer instead of the end of summer.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print tonight!

tags: heat, t-shirts, threadless, weather, work

For those keeping score at home, this is the 75th episode of Monster Cat!

It was a terribly hot weekend. Saturday the cats were left alone to be lumps around the house. They were very glad to see us when we got home. Since their food dishes weren’t empty, I have to assume their happiness was due to the fact that our thumbs would soon turn some AC. They did look a little wilted in their little fur coats. Sunday we did very little. I organized some sewing stuff and poked around at bits of my desk. I’m achieving greater organization but slowly. Tennyson spent the day finding the best angle on the Vornado fan. I am happy to report that it circulates air very well, even with a large, gray cat in the way!

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, heat, monster cat, organization, silly, tennyson, weaterh, weekend

We’re looking at having a very hot weekend here. Monster Cat is not excited by this. Neither am I.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: air conditioning, boxes, cats, comics, hot, monster cat, silly, tennyson, weather

That’s right. It’s March. It’s practically Spring, especially if you ask my thermometer. *grumble* I hate missing a really good Winter.

Monster Cat has been terribly cute lately. I’ve been in Meeting Hell [tm] lately and he’s taken to climbing into my lap when I push back to listen to the conference call. Cute and warm, both of which are good. Except that it got really warm in my office again today. Handily he’s easily displaced if I open a window. Because he can SMELL things through the screen and that’s very exciting to what kitty brain he has.

It rained on the paper recycling. I’m sure the guys who do the pick ups hate that. A lot. I wish the town let us recycle more curb-side. I don’t mind separating nor do I mind the fact that we sometimes go a full month without a recycling day due to holidays and elections. I do mind that we don’t do plastic recycling at all and glass recycling involves running down to the school to dump stuff. So what goes out? Metal and paper. And paper needs to be self-contained in paper or cardboard which isn’t usually a problem as long as we aren’t getting too much junk mail. They won’t dump from blue bins. Please, Upper Darby, just make this easier for everyone. Oh and it will help me save the planet even more! Yes, at least we have curb-side recycling. It is awesome. But I want more!

And that’s all for now. I will post this in the morning. (Yes, I try to get Monster Cat posts prepped the night before so I can just click “Publish” in the morning. I’m not nearly creative enough to build Monster Cat in the morning. Nor am I coordinated enough to do all the right exports and uploads. Trust me, it’s best for everyone. I usually give myself at least half an hour between getting up and playing with fire to make coffee… comics are much more dangerous than my stove and should not be toyed with in an under-caffeinated state! Or in an over-tired state, which I am quickly achieving here. I guess I should close these parentheses and toddle off.)

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: , cats, comics, meetings, monster cat, recycling, silly, tennyson, weather, work

UserFriendly provides today’s comic-to-share of the day. So very true. There’s such an addictive quality to Blackberries that sometimes it’s hard to let go.

Which is why I don’t have a Blackberry.

I did get a new phone last week though! I have a new Samsung a737 with orange racing stripes! (The racing stripes make it faster! Okay, the 3G network support makes it faster, not that I use it.) I blew through the last of my roll-over minutes in January and February making a new plan with more minutes necessary. Since this landed me with a new 2 year contract anyway, I took advantage of the opportunity to get a new, mostly-free phone. My old phone was starting to behave badly after almost 2 years of vaguely faithful service, so it was probably time anyway.

I like my new phone. It’s orange. It’s also a slider phone and locks itself (well its keys) appropriately. I think it’s slightly bigger than my old LG flip phone, but not so much that I’ll actually notice. It still fits in my little cell case so I’m happy.

Yes, my criteria for cell phones are very basic. I don’t care if it does six million cool things. I want it to work as a phone and fit in my pocket. The orange racing stripes are a great bonus though.

Eventually, I will get an iPhone. Probably when it has 3G support. (Because I don’t need my phone to surf the web but when I do surf the web from my overpowered phone, I’ll want it to be fast!) There’s no discount on the iPhone when you renew a contract, so I can keep waiting.

In other news, it was almost 70 degrees out today. With the sun hitting my windows and the door closed, it hit 78 degrees in my office this afternoon. Fun stuff for early March. I’m not going to get winter this winter, am I?

tags: cell phones, heat, iphone, smartphones, user friendly, weather

La Befana is apparently still not making trans-atlantic flights. My socks were empty this morning. Of course, I didn’t leave any wine out to entice La Befana to come fill my socks, but she could have helped herself to anything on the wine rack!

Epiphany’s Eve was marked, for me, by a lack of parking last night when we got home from dinner (from a fabulous Chinese restaurant, staple of the holiday season). The churchies were dutifully attending Epiphany services or something. Yesterday 2 chilly people under-dressed for the wind took down the church’s pretty white Christmas lights. I should check to see if the manger setup is gone yet.

Personally, I prefer my mom’s tradition (which may be a “Maine thing”) of leaving the Christmas wreath up until Easter… This is more a practical thing than religious thing. Usually by Easter the snow has melted enough that you can get to the wreath to take it down. As opposed to here where I’ll be lucky if I see more than two snowflakes at once this year. This week’s forecast puts us into the mid-60s - aka far to warm for winter, even for the January thaw.

My office has a new rug! Hurray! Now I need to clean my desk so that my cat can have his spot back.

tags: cleaning, epiphany, holiday musings, rain, random, warm, weather

Last week’s trip to Connecticut was productive as well as a time-suck in that I never get as much done in New London as I do at home. All in all it was a good if tiring work week. I go back at the end of the month for a bunch of training and more meetings. Whee… I really need to mail some expense reports.

This weekend was Kingdom Crusades down in Maryland. Saturday I discovered the rapid fire setting on my camera. Many, many photos were taken of fencing and heavy list fighting, where “many, many” is equal to 754. I got them all downloaded to the computer yesterday. I’ll pick through them and get some of the highlights up on Flickr soon.

The weekend was too hot - it was almost Pennsic weather, which is unacceptable for the first weekend of October. Saturday morning was lovely - overcast and foggy - but quickly turned soupy with heat and humidity. By the time we were leaving on Sunday, the commentary sounded like Pennsic too as we all started to look forward to the air conditioning in our cars, long showers and comfortable beds. The right side of my body is still stiff and angry from sleeping on those silly beds. The heat and sun really sapped my energy too, which helpfully prevented me from completely borking my sleep schedule. The sunburn on my face is still sensitive to the touch.

It’s been unseasonably warm… okay, it’s been really bloody hot. It’s over 80° F right now and was warmer than that all weekend. The forecast looks good for a cooler weekend, but that’s daaaaaays away. Days!!!

tags: kingdom crusades, sca, travel, weather, weekend, work

Pennsic was hot, humid, wet, damp, and great. I have a cold now, but I think the happy chinese medicine nisaa gave me held it off an extra day (so I could help unpack yesterday) and in general lessened its impact on my life. Hurray! Of course, that still means I’m rundown and congested today, but that’s better than having it hit me Saturday or Sunday.

So here’s the quick rundown of things I want to remember for next year while I can still remember it.

Lessons learned and/or reinforced at Pennsic this year:

• I need another large memory card for my camera.
• We need to level our bed next year.
• Acupuncture is amazing.
• Heat and humidity of mighty oppressiveness make it easy to skip Pennsic classes.
• Rain and mud of mighty quantities make it easy to skip Pennsic classes.
• More linen and silk.
• Viking apron dresses are key and I should make some.
• Food at the food court is boring and fattening. We should bring some food to grill in camp next year.
• On the topic of food, it’s such a pity to watch an amazing bed of coals go to waste in the Stargate (our amazing firepit) each night… I should put together some interesting things to bake in the coals for breakfast. (Either in foil or a dutch oven or both…)

I’ve imported all the photos from my camera’s card. Most of them are of the Rapier Champions Tournament, unsurprisingly. Most of the sunburn I got was from that Tournament too. Hopefully I’ll get some of them up this week. I’ll probably throw the whole series from the Champions tourney somewhere other than Flickr for you fencer types.

After 2 showers and a loooooong bath, my toenails are still dirty but the rest of me feels clean. I should start to tackle the laundry next. Eek. Laundry.

tags: heat, pennsic, pennsic xxxvi, rain, sca, sick, travel, weather