branoven

So, every morning I drive by this reservoir on the way to work. During the spring, summer, and fall, it's especially cool, because lots of people walk their dogs there and I often get to go 'Doggie!' at the cuteness on my way to work. In the winter, less so, but for the last several days, it's had a different sort of entertainment value. For the last several days, at various points along the shoreline where there are plants growing (or the dead remnants thereof), I've been able to watch those plants get slowly covered by a thin layer of ice, from the water splashing up off the reservoir. The ice crystals have slowly been growing up and out as the wind and water pushed them higher. It's kinda cool.

This morning, thanks to the high winds and ridiculous cold that we had last night, all of those points basically look like explosions of ice. Like someone dropped a bomb in the water and then flash-froze the explosion. It's very cool.

In other news, my cold has progressed from the ridiculously sore throat stage to the runny nose stage, which I actually prefer (I say this now, having just spent two and a half days at the sore throat stage, I'm sure I'll get sick of it soon enough) since it can be dealt with using tissues and won't impact my ability to eat the food at the company holiday party.

Last night right before dinner Monique was complaining of abdominal pain. Monique is one of those people who handles pain extremely well, so when she complains I give it a lot of credence. She checked her abdomen, which has undergone 10 surgeries in the last 15 years, and there was an area that looked really bad, swollen, red and hot. We looked at that and decided with the way it felt and the outstanding warnings of her condition that we should get her to the ER, so we did.

The nurse took one look at it (it looked a lot worse) and immediately called a doctor over. They poked and prodded and took all the readings and took fluid samples and then did a CT scan. When all is said and done, they *believe* it's *just* a skin infection and prescribed 10 days of antibiotics and a follow up with her PCP.

We got out of there at 12:30 this morning. Thank goodness it was nothing worse. That was quite the scare.

For those who haven't seen an actual update lately and commented on it, here's an actual though brief update.

Monique and I have been down to one car since Thanksgiving, at which time we gave her car to our youngest son. It's the last time they'll be out here this year, so it was the logical thing to do in terms of timing. Unfortunately, the budget doesn't have a new car built into it until the van is paid off at the end of December. So for a few weeks we've been carpooling, which means slightly more commute for me and longer hours. Longer hours mean less time for personal things like updating journals.

Longer hours also mean me being more tired, so I've been crashing earlier and getting less done at home at night, so less time for things like updating journals. What little time I've had has gone into the projects I have. I'm working on writing a song for the feast on Jan 8th per one player's request. I'm arranging a song for the feast to perform with another player. I've been catching up on CP credit for 7V players (and as of last night and totally current). I've got my budget totally current for the first time in a month and have even paid off a bunch of annoying little medical bills.

So that's basically it.

Who did I piss off to get my tire to blow out while I was driving on the highway to get to my exam?

Me *on the phone*: illuminari, I can't get my tire to stop spinning, and it's in park.

illuminari: Have you tried the E brake?

Me: Oh.

And an error prevented me from getting into a class I needed and have been trying to get into for 2 years... even though I was extra careful about getting in early with the overrides... Went to the Dean's office and apparently I have enough credits in exercise sci for them to just forget about the other classes I need for my minor... the words "But I really wanted to take that class... I took physics to be able to take that class." almost came out of my mouth...but really do I want an extra 2 classes if I don't have to take them? Desire for awesome knowledge versus "free" time...

anyways

I feel like punching someone in the mouth- did xmas shopping and bought video games for me and the roommate- time to hit zombies and crash cars.

Not terribly exciting, but fun. Friday night drove up to NH to have dinner with sarrciano and his folks, then we hung out and watched some TV before crashing. (heated pads under sheets = win)

Saturday I hung out with thedeviantangel and silway for most of the day (with guest appearance by quentarielf near the end), watching TV, chatting, watching silway design a new magic card deck, and working on chain-mail jewelry projects. Was a lot of fun. Then, in the evening, I went out to Concord to go contra-dancing with Draco. That was a ton a fun. I haven't done it since college (and only once or twice there), and I'd forgotten how much fun it was. Both Draco and I were a bit lost a lot of the time, but people were fun and helped us out and it was cool. Also used the opportunity to catch him up on NERO stuff from the last Volta event. :) Looking forward to the feast and the one-day.

Sunday spent all day hanging out with sarrciano. We drove up to his parents' place to watch the Pats game (our TV is not working), then tried to switch it out for another TV we had (but that didn't work either - sad), and did succeed in finding a cooking tool that he's going to need for Christmas. Just a low key fun day.

A very happy birthday to keyla87
I hope you had a great day.

~Patrick

To keyla87!

Am trying to think of something positive to say about the weather today... How about: This seems to me to be a perfect evening for curling up with a hot drink?

I'm trying. Hope that you have a great day, regardless of the weather.

Happy birthday to tashewolf, grumblykins and crunkered!

And on a completely unrelated note, I found out this weekend that Omi is now 2 for 6 on realizing when she's talking to royalty. :sigh:

Why do I wait until the last minute to work on my creative projects... *sigh*

Was a pretty good event. The weather was sorta lousy all day Saturday, until it actually got cold enough that the snow stuck and didn't just make you wet, at which point it was sorta awesome. It was funny that the snow at the 3PM field fight sorta just made things cold, wet, and miserable, and the snow at the 8PM field fight just set the scene and added to it. (Sure it made us lose all of our packets, but once I started subbing in snowballs for spell packets the scene was complete.)

( More highlights: )

Stolen from last_real_angel :

( Resolutions and commentary behind the cut )( Read more... )

Customer: “Hello, I’m looking to get a handgun like this one.”

(The customer holds up a picture from the movie ‘Wanted’.)

Me: “All righty, we’ll have to order that one for you, but we can have it to you in a few weeks.”

Customer: “WHAT?! I NEED THE GUN BY NEXT WEEK! CAN’T YOU GET ME THE GUN BY NEXT WEEK?!”

Me: “You’ll have to deal with the waiting period, anyway. What exactly do you need it for so quickly?”

Customer: *suddenly calm again* “Me and my friend are going to curve a bullet around his head for a YouTube video.”

Me: “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a gun then. All you’ll do is kill your buddy and go to jail.”

Customer: “YOU’RE GOING TO GET ME THE GUN, OR I’M GOING TO TALK TO THE MANAGER!”

(The manager, who was in the room behind the counter, walks out with a shotgun on his shoulder.)

Manager: “You’re in my store, where I have literally hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Are you really that stupid?”

(The customer looks around at the guns like he hadn’t noticed them before, and runs out of the store as my co-worker walks up.)


Co-worker: “I love working here.”

The Mansfield Animal Shelter has been selected to be part of the The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge. Please vote for the Mansfield Animal Shelter, and help kestrelmwe win money to help build their new shelter, already in progress!

1) Go here: The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3

2) Search for the Mansfield Animal Shelter, in Mansfield MA.

3) Click to vote; it will ask you to confirm that you're a real person by asking you to identify an animal in a photo - do so, and you're done!

You can click daily between now and December 20th, and every single click helps!