DragonBlog

Happy Halloween!!!

Jareth Halloween costume - 2003:

Trick-or-Treated out - 2003:

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Pumpkin Poetry...

We did tiny little pumpkins last year instead of the usual big ones. (mostly we were short on time) Mine was an internet smiley - winking, aka ;-) only I turned it right-side-up so that kids wouldn't look at it funny. The pictures of last year's pumpkins didn't turn out good enough to really see them, so tomorrow you'll get pictures of my son instead, as last year's costume was a pumpkin!

Trust me, it'll be cute. I've got two pics queued up and I'll hopefully even put them up before we head over to the in-laws' house, since we're doing the Halloween day gig over there.

In the meantime, I've got to go back to finishing up the pumpkin-carving for this year. We're almost done!

G'night!

More mess and mayhem...

Tired tonight.
Busy day.
Ran errands, added pet store to the list too.

It got warm and muggy out, so we're carving pumpkins tomorrow. I had hoped to do them on the patio, but the weather didn't feel right for it. If it still feels too muggy tomorrow, we'll just do it inside instead.

Looks like getting a key for Brian's car doors and trunk is a royal pain. They key code that the manufacturer gave the local dealership to make a new key didn't work. They want $700+ to put in all new locks. The only other suggestion they have is to call a locksmith to see if they can re-key the locks and give us an all new key.

Brian is going to see if he can't just cut the old lock assembly apart and get the old one out of there, once he's put the new one into the car. It showed up today, and I doubt he'll have much trouble putting the new assembly in. He's hoping if he can get that old key out, then we can just get new door keys made from that.

Cross you're fingers. This whole thing has been one big pain in the p'toot.

And it seems I'm being plagued by commend spammers once again. I can't wait until I have time to move this blog into WordPress. Next week, hopefully.

G'night!

Pump-kins!

Wordpress and other tasks on the computer seem to be on hold at the moment, as errands have risen to consume the latter half of this week. Looks like DragonBlog won't be making the move to its proper address until next week. If you've been having to come through the filler page I made over at rayndragon.com I apologize, but it's been increasingly hectic over here. Today's errands at least proved fun - a quick stop at the hair salon to get Jareth's hair trimmed back from it's wild and shaggy state. I suppose it would have gone well with the lion costume I got him, but you won't be able to see it under the hood anyway. At least you won't now - and it won't be sticking into his eyes anymore either. I wanted to get that done over a week ago, but the car situation made it too complicated to schedule in.

After that we popped over to a place that boasts itself being a vegetable farm, where they had piles of pumpkins, a petting zoo, and a bunch of rides. I wasn't about to buy tickets for the rides (although I was highly tempted by the pony rides - even if the poor things were tethered in an unending circle), but I did roll the battered shopping cart over to the petting zoo where he sat in slack-jawed awe of the sheep, goats, and other animals as they sat or wandered back and forth in their pen.

I forgot to bring the camera, although it will be more fun to take pictures of pumpkin picking-out next year, when he will be more able to choose one for himself. I picked out one for Jareth, Brian, and myself, and browsed their other goods which I actually found less than impressive. Though they had tons of pumpkins and apples, they seemed to lack in many other vegetables to offer. I must assume that they are coming up close enough to the end of the season that there's not much to put out. Although I did notice that a lot of the apples weren't local. And that some of the other stuff they had looked priced to impress the yuppies. Pffft.

Got pictures back yesterday, so finally I've got a better picture of Cinder:

Also I have a recent picture of Jareth enjoying a donut:

With Halloween this weekend, however, I should have newer pictures coming in the next two weeks. I can't wait to see how the costume looks!

That's all for today. There's more errands to run tomorrow, but not as exciting - post office, bank, quick stop at the grocery store again... Then, tomorrow night is pumpkin-carving! Maybe I'll post last year's pumpkins as this year's halloween blog, since the new digital camera I'm getting won't be here in time for Halloween. At least then it will be festive! We'll see.

G'night!

There ought to be a law...

Or at least a committee?

What, you ask, am I complaining about this time?

Oh, where to begin...?...

How about we start with the upcoming holiday.

Yep, that's right, Halloween. A holiday I used to thoroughly enjoy. A kid's holiday, for a large percentage of those who practice it (a wiccan one to others, but you can talk to my husband for more information on how all of that works), and last year we saw an exhibit at a museum in Chicago about "The Day of The Dead", which unveiled some interesting info on cultural differences south of the border.

But, for me, it has always been a kid's holiday. It's about mischief and candy, pretending to be someone else, and visiting your neighbors under enjoyable circumstances. Everyone is friendly - complimenting costumes, handing out candy (nevermind the razorblade-apple fiascos), and sneaking up on each other to say "BOO!" in good-natured fun.

So will someone please tell me where the giant glowing plastic inflatable scarecrow comes into the holiday?

I mean, really people - display some taste for crying out loud!

I'm all for the cobwebs and the teensy little spiders. I enjoy the scary creaky sounds and the triggered dodads that jump out to terrify the kids who come up the walk. And the pumpkins are an absolute must, along with the slightly salted baked seeds - yum! - and the glowy candles dancing inside the freshly carved orange faces. There should be straw, and corn, and corn husks, and squash to match the colors of the newly fallen leaves that are whirling about between the blades of grass in my lawn. And most of all - handcrafted artwork by children. Construction-paper ghosts with magic-marker eyes and big gaping "o"s for mouths. Tissue-paper ghosts hanging from the branches of the trees with twist-ties and fishing line so that they sway with every gust of wind. Wreathes made of dried leaves hanging proudly on the doors.

Not christmas lights that now have orange bulbs instead.

Halloween used to be about a whole lot more. And now, like every other holiday on the calendar, Hallmark and other companies have jumped in to make it plastic, and fake, and about money instead.

I'd like to take our blowgun and go around the neighborhood shooting down every goddamned inflatable ghost, scarecrow, bat, or other critter I see.

But I won't. I haven't that kind of courage.

I'll just sigh sadly each time I pass these tacky lawn decorations by, and wonder what happened to taste.

There are some neighborhoods not far from here that won't allow people to park an RV or a pickup truck outside. If it's not garaged, it's subject to a fine or towing. They want things to look a certain way. I think that outlawing specific vehicles is taking it a bit far, but I'd like to see some "tackiness laws" put into place. A license to decorate maybe? Or maybe we could just outlaw these decorations at the source? A national committee for tastefulness, to decide if certain products are sold or not.

*sigh*

Don't even get me started on Christmas. Wal-Mart has already shipped out their entire lawn and garden department to fill it with dancing santas and plastic glowing snowmen. I know this, as I went there today to see if they had pumpkins. They were out.

*bigger sigh*

Oh well. I'll find pumpkins tomorrow.

G'night!

And now,

Would you rather:
1. get a wedgie OR get a swirlie?
well, when I see that the definition for "swirlie" includes the following: 2) A tantalizing method of analingus. Requires precise dexterity of the tongue but success is often duly rewarded., I'd say that being a woman I'd have to go with THAT one!!! No contest!
2. have to kiss ryan seacrest OR simon cowell?
I didn't know who either of them were before checking out the links, but I guess I'd have to go for Ryan Seacrest as considerably better looking. Since it's only one kiss, he'll do.
3. have an ingrown toenail OR a carbuncle?
I - ugh! - guess I'll have to go with ingrown toenail. I have a distinct feeling it would be easier to cure. *shudder*
4. vote for john kerry OR george w bush?
NEITHER! Damnit. Well, since Kerry seems to be continuing to send his campaign swirling further down into the proverbial "shitter", I'm starting to wonder if perhaps Bush might actually be the lesser of the two evils after all... But honestly I don't plan to vote for either of them.

Moving up in technical bliss...

Well, finally I have gotten Wordpress up and running on the new server where www.rayndragon.com is now residing comfortably. I have transferred DragonBytes over, and it can be found here in its whole 8 entry entirety. That one is small and simple, with no links or images or other complicated things, so I use it as the test. It's going to be more complicated to get this blog moved over, but I do plan to drop it into wordpress. I am already liking the options I see available, and I really like that I don't have to rebuild when I make changes. It also already has stuff to start banning people trying to spam my comments. All I really seem to be missing is the ability to have it e-mail me when someone does leave a comment - something that it says it does, but I can't seem to get it to work. It lets me know when something doesn't pass the filter, but it doesn't let me know if something does.

I feel like I fried my brain out a little today though, figuring it all out. But at least I've gotten the first blog moved, although technically it is still up where it always was too - I'll need to delete it off of this server at some point before it goes away. I also need to do some formatting, although I never really messed with that blog to make it look different, so anything I do on that one will be new, or based off the look of this blog.

I don't know at what point I'll move this one over, but expect a bunch of links to be broken for a bit after I do. It looks like it will keep the posts just fine, and hopefully the comments will move intact as well. I'm liking the integrated blogroll thing - I'll have to mess with that - where I can divide my links up into categories too. I've been meaning to do that for some time now.

Anyway. Brain fried for tonight. I think I'll go play some computer game or other before I cash it in for tonight.

G'night!

Littermates...

I think the new kitten, Cinder, has adopted Jareth as a littermate. I know for a fact that Jareth absolutely loves it. He seems to want to pet her soft fur every time she gets close, and he'll sit in his high chair leaned way over to one side so he can peer down at the floor in case she comes by.

I think Nora is finally starting to warm up to her too, as it appeared they were actually playing today, even if that playing involved chasing each other all over the house. Cinder has found that under the recliner in the living room is a good place to hide and still see out, while Nora doesn't seem to try to go under there as it is very low to the ground. She still seems like she's trying to pounce Nora's tail, which is almost always twitching whenever she's lounging somewhere keeping an eye on the kitten.

I was concerned that when the vet comes he'll tell us to put Nora on a diet, as she's been on the border and starting to seem a little heavier lately, but I have a feeling the renewed activity of chasing Cinder around may just be the cure. I saw Nora get more exercise today than all of the prior week! She even has had this tendancy to get bored with playing with me, and walks off to go lounge instead. This little kitten is helping breathe some fresh life into our cat's somewhat lazy one.

Of course, what I really need to finish doing, is breathing some fresh life into my own.

More to ponder on. Then again, there's always more to ponder on...

"Ponderous, man... Truly ponderous..."

Points if you can tell me where that quote comes from. I've got to get that on CD. Note to self: add to Amazon wish list before Christmas.

G'night!

Critters and other chaos running amuck...

I think we're about to turn the bend on Nora and Cinder, the new kitten, finally getting along. I have this feeling that Nora has realized that the new kitten takes the attention off of her in the matter of Jareth, who's little hands love to touch the fur on the new little gray kitty. He's learning the concept of "gentle" finally, although he still wants to play so badly that he tends the throw toys at the kitten instead of to her. He means well, and so far hasn't managed to actually bean her on the head. Yet. But suddenly Nora isn't the one being chased by the little boy, and I think maybe she's not minding that part. Just the part where Cinder keeps exploring her territory. We let the kitten have the run of the place today and she explored quite a bit of it. I'm still keeping her in the bathroom overnight though, just in case Nora isn't as complacent as she's been acting later this evening.

I'm also still having troubles getting my www.rayndragon.com domain transferred properly, so bear with me while things get straightened out. I've now got e-mails going back and forth with the customer service peeps so I'm thinking we might be able to get it resolved next week. I've also asked for advice on getting Wordpress up, as I haven't had any luck there either.

In other news, Brian has his car working, though not perfectly fixed, and we did have to order a new locking thingy after all. I'm also going to need to call and get a new key so that if the battery dies on his automatic door opener thing we can still actually get into the door. I'm going to make sure there are extras this time too. I hadn't realized there was only one key to his car. Ouch.

Anyway, more things brewing, but I don't feel like being long-winded tonight so I'll knock off here.

G'night!

I demand a recount...

No really. Can we maybe just toss these damned political fish back into the sea?

At this point, I'd rather vote for the green party, but they won't be on the Illinois ballot!

*sighs with extreme exasperation*

So what the hell is this crap I'm hearing about Kerry anyway? Not that I was planning to vote for him anyway, but first his wife says something that basically could be taken as if she doesn't consider "homemaker/mother" a viable enough responsibility to be comparable to a job?

Well fuck you lady. I'm soooo sorry that I don't want to just dump my kid in daycare and let someone else raise him for me. I guess I won't be looking to you for an example on "family values" if your idiot husband becomes our next president eh?

Speaking of the candidate himself...

What's this utter shit I'm hearing today? My husband, who keeps me up to date on some of this crap as it comes out, comes home today to let me know that if Kerry doesn't win the actual election, he's going to drag it through the recount court to be abso-fucking-lutely sure he didn't maybe really ought to win for some absurd reason?!?

I once again stand saddened that our country is in such a piss-poor state that we have only these few candidates to consider. I am highly tempted to go through the write-in process at this point. Although, the last time I wanted to do that and it sounded more complicated than it ought to be just to do it.

And I'm still not sure I want to vote for some Libertarian guy who hasn't ever held any political office before. All the other politicians would eat him alive! But the Green party guy isn't going to be on my ballot and I'll be damned if I'm voting for Kerry or Bush. I try like hell to vote for the lesser of the evils, thanks.

*mumbles something nasty about deep-seated capitalist countries still trying to pretend they're democratic*

Some days I just want to run around and grab people by the shoulders and shake them...

WAKE UP!!!

Oh, and, um... pardon all my swearing today please.

*guilty look*

G'night!

Pardon our dust...

Technical difficulties today, as my domain name moves from one server to another so that my server space and domain name reside together. I have had the server space for about a week now, and have been working on getting some stuff going, but the domain name seems to be lagging on me. I had a secondary service that redirected it for a couple days but I took it off so I could see when it started working, only to find that my domain name is currently leading absolutely nowhere without it.

Rawr!

Still can't get Wordpress working either. I'm hoping that once the domain transfer is working I will at least know that I'm directing it to the right stuff. This half-here / half-there thing is driving me nuts.

Rayndragon is currently lost in cyberspace folks. And I, the Dragon of Rayn herself, am growing exceedingly frustrated...

In other news - never separate every cd from both its case and manual. I've spent part of today re-matching them all together again, and it is a pain. We had separated the CDs out while we were traveling in the motorhome a while back, and I've only just gotten around to matching everything back together. Some bits are missing - I'd bet good money that Brian is hoarding most of them over at his desk though. I've asked for him to hand over what he's got for the moment while I sort through it all. If he doesn't, I may have to go on a desk raid one of these days.

Also today, the book for his car arrived! Which means that maybe I'll actually have my own car back to myself sometime over the weekend. Maybe. I hope.

Cross your fingers he can figure it all out, eh? Thanks. Computers I can handle, but get me anywhere near a car engine and I start feeling my motherboard fry.

Then again, I think I could get into it if I started small... a motorcycle perhaps? hmmm. But more on that another time.

Ooooh... kitten....

What was I saying?

Oh, nevermind. There's a kitten visiting me now.

G'night!

Cleaning out the clutter...

Egads... I don't mess with ebay for a while and now suddenly I'm putting up auctions left and right.

Okay, two. Two auctions.

One left. One right.

But more forthcoming I think.

I went into The Garage today...

He's made aisles of the boxes and clutter. Aisles!

*clutches throat*

And to think - we're still paying for stuff to be stored...

*sobs*

I'm re-arranging. I'm throwing stuff out. And I'm looking on ebay to see what manner of my junk is someone else's treasure. I may just have to start linking to my auctions here or something.

I'm sick and tired of finding bits and pieces of perfectly good stuff that I just damn well don't f---ing want anymore!

I have to find it ironic that it's not until winter approaches that my "spring fever" finally starts to kick in...

Time to weed out more of the crap. Keep the stuff I want, sell the stuff I don't, and either throw out the rest or box some of it up for garage sales. There are four monitors in my garage now - one doesn't work. The other three probably do, although not as nicely as the ones we're using inside. But I'll be damned if I'm going to ship one of those across the country.

*shakes her head and sighs*

So much mess...

G'night!

Teeny Tiny Claws...

I've never had a kitten this small before. Cinder is quick, she's clever, and she's got teeny tiny claws. I have these tiny little scratches growing in quantity all over my arms, legs, and neck mostly.

I suspect that's one of the reasons they come so cute. So you can't help but say "awwww" as she scampers around drawing blood here and there...

Nora was already six months old when we got her, and past some of the clumsiness and such that this kitten is displaying. I've never seen a cat pounce so inaccurately before - it's soooo cute! She pounces and then has to finish walking over to the toy she was trying to get to in the first place. Nora also no longer had the tiny "mew" that this kitten has. Her voice had matured to another level of "mew" that wasn't quite as high pitched. I must remain in absolute awe, however, of the level of volume such a tiny little being can create!

Nora is still pissed. I've been continuing to bribe her with extra treats and special snuggles and all, but she is so not pleased. Especially since I'm trying to increase the amount of time that Cinder is allowed out of the bathroom. There's this chain reaction problem though:

Cinder comes out to play + Nora finds out and starts hissing = Jareth bursts into tears!

*sigh*

Anyway, all sorts of computer stuff going on around here. Brian brought home a computer today that he got through a place that sells refurbished stuff. No operating system on it means I won't be registering the computer I just dropped my version of windows XP onto, as I'll be using it on this one instead. It's going to be my new "work machine" so that Brian can use the laptop for writing now. He also got a 19-inch monitor in the deal, which he gets as his died a couple of days ago. Fortunately I already had the monitor for my work machine as I'd bought one to make a Linux box and never really did much with it. I'm using that for the work machine now instead, but was able to lend him one until he got the new one. Upgrading two inches doesn't sound like it was too shabby either. It's only fair, as I have the better speakers.

Meanwhile, I've got stuff to install. And I want to see if any of my RAM will work in there to boost it a bit. Along with my other hard drives.

And then there's this kitten to distract me too...

G'night!

And now,

Happy birthday to tj, who makes up the questions for Tuesday is Chooseday each week!

Would you rather:
1. eat an entire costco sized chocolate cake OR a full bag of double-stuff oreos?
Ooooh - cake! Gimmeeeee! Cake!!!
2. win a $500 gift certificate to starbucks OR best buy?
Charbucks? Nuh-uh! I don't even like Starburnts coffee! But Best Buy and I get along verrrry well!
3. have the whole day off to read and listen to music OR go hiking?
Oooh, tough choice! I could take either. I guess we're assuming that someone is babysitting... If the house is actually going to be that quiet, I think I'll stay in and read and listen to music. However, if my husband is around - I'd rather head off and do some hiking with him instead.
4. take a trip to another continent for a week OR drive across your own continent for two weeks?
Well, since I've done some of the travel across my own continent thing already, I think it would be nice to see someplace else too, so I'll go with that one.

Cinder Gray...

Well, so far HRH Queen Nora the Cat is still hissing and unhappy about this new little kitten who's intruded on her territory. I've been pampering the hell out of her today, but although she's come closer, she's still seeming pretty upset. The vet tells me it could take as long as a month before they get along. The poor kitten seems petrified anytime Nora come close at the moment. I even went so far as to limit my "visits" into the bathroom that the new kitten is staying in for the moment, although we let her have some exploration time in the family room (next to that bathroom) for a while tonight.

Jareth, on the other hand keeps taking the kitten's toys away so he can throw them at her, trying to get her attention. He has the patience of, well, a kitten for that matter, so the minute she starts to go for the toy he picks it up again.

*sigh*

He also doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between soft toys and hard ones, which makes supervision extremely necessary. I've noticed that the kitten is already getting quicker at dodging him though.

Jareth has, however, discovered that the kitten has little teensy claws. He tends to curl his toes away and hide his usually bare feet whenever the kitten decides to turn the tables and play with him instead. It's very cute to watch them play - we think the kitten has decided that Jareth is an unruly littermate.

Oh... and not to forget...we've named her. Henceforth, the little gray kitten in our family is called - Cinder.

Mew.

G'night!

FREE CUTE KITTENS!!!

And the sign wasn't lying either - they were very cute - irresistably so!!

And thus, I present - THE NEW KITTY !!!!

The name is still forthcoming. We haven't decided, as it's partly going to be based on her personality and we don't know her well enough yet. She's six weeks old (apparently born September 2nd).

Those are the only two pictures I was able to get off before the drive inside my digital camera died!!! I'll take tons with my Canon tomorrow, but I wanted a good kitty-face pic and it didn't happen tonight.

Nora actually hissed at the new kitten though, so there will be some careful adjusting to be made. Jareth, on the other hand, was actually gentle when petting the new kitten. He did start crying pretty unhappily when Nora hissed though, and he keeps calling the kitten "Nora" too. In fact, we've determined that all animals are "Nora" to him, when he called my in-law's dog by the same name tonight. Ah, well... All things in good time.

It's killing me to not go hang out in the bathroom with the new kitten right now, who is mewing and wants to play, but Nora was so put out that I'm trying not to make her totally jealous. She's not down here right now though, so I think I may just go take a little peek...

G'night!

Where'd it all go???

All that energy we had as kids? Where'd it go? I want it now! Either that, or I want back all that "naptime" I so despised as a kid.

*sigh*

Today, I feel old.

I know I'm not old yet, but I just feel it today.

Maybe it's the weather. Dunno.

Either way, we didn't really get squat done today. We decided not to start painting the clouds as we had errands to run...

And then we somehow managed to blow off running the errands too.

Nevermind what we did instead, for part of that time we were supposed to be doing productive stuff. *ahem*

Other than that, we just hung around the house being "family" and sometimes "couple", when Jareth would allow.

Jareth's current favorite game is peek-a-boo. He'll hold a blanket up, or his hands in front of his eyes. Except he peeks through the fingers when he does that. It's very cute.

That child owns me.

Although often Brian does too. He just doesn't always take advantage of it the way our son does.

I'm so smitten.

And I need a nap.

I may turn in early tonight. We shall see.

G'night!

Eeeeevil internet...

E-bay is evil. For that matter, so is pricewatch.com as well. Although I'm still not seeing the software I want for the $40 or less I want to pay for them. Nope. No goodies for me tonight.

I'm in a "computer jolt" right now. I spent today ripping the guts out of one computer, making another one a blank slate with nothing but Windows XP on it for the moment, and setting aside another two to combine and turn into something useful maybe next week.

Then my husband happens to come home with mention of a possible person who potentially might be interested in paying someone to redesign their web site (and it needs it, in my humble opinion), so I'm all looking at web sites and dreaming up new stuff and wondering how to make flash stuff work, and so on...

But I don't have the software to make flash stuff. I bet I could handle it just fine if I did...

Oooooh. And I want Front Page too, for easy upload and organization and quick editing...

*drools all over keyboard*

Damnit!

I think this computer thing is, like, an addiction or something.

You know, I never said "I want to be a geek when I grow up!" Not ever.

*sigh*

To take my mind off it I'll just go play a computer game now --

DOH!

G'night!

If it isn't one thing, it's another...

One my way home tonight, I had so much to blog...

After all, tonight was my last drawing class. I thought about blogging about the overall class experience, as well as how it felt knowing it was the last one for now. When I made the decision to not take another right away, it was due to money concerns. I wasn't going to risk hurting our sad state of affairs more by taking some frivilous class that was purely for my own self-gratification.

But now Brian has a job for at least a while, so the money situation doesn't look as bleak as it did a week ago...

But then there's the "inconvenience factor" - every Thursday has seemed like it's this big issue that I have class. Like the world readjusts itself to make room for my selfish little desire. I've been late to class on most days. I didn't go to it for two of the weeks while I was working, first because I hurt my leg and another time out of pure exhaustion that would have taken the fun out of it entirely. And every single time I've gone busting my ass out of that classroom on time while other people sit around and chat up the teacher and each other for a few minutes. But I've got a kid who goes to bed when I'm getting out of class, and therefore he goes to bed late so that mommy can be there to help tuck him into bed.

I know that Brian is capable of putting our son to bed, but the trick is that I want to be there with him to do it.

*sigh*

I just can't have my cake and eat it too it seems. So instead, I'll quit the cake for now. Maybe when our finances are in better shape again, and I'm not totally stressed out I'll make another go of it.

On the way home, I stopped off at a store and picked up diaper rash lotion, as I had a distinct nagging feeling that I wouldn't be able to run errands tomorrow, and it was the most urgent item on the list. It's not good to be out of diaper rash lotion around here. Jareth get's this nasty rash when he's teething, and the most recent one is only just starting to clear up.

I was right to pick it up. As mentioned on his blog, Brian didn't get his car working enough to drive it to work tomorrow, so he'll be taking mine again. It really makes me nervous when I'm home alone with Jareth and carless. I'm just one of those people who fears the worst, but it looks like it will be this way until the manual gets here and he can fix it. The e-mail in my box today said that it could take anywhere between 5 and 14 days to arrive...

*sigh*

Not to mention that errands will now have to be run on Saturday, which had previously been slotted as "paint fun stuff in Jareth's room!" day. I doubt we'll get it finished, if we even get it started.

So now I'm depressed again. So I don't really feel like blogging much.

er....

Yeah, I noticed that. I just did blog, didn't I?

Well, that's something anyway. But enough for now.

G'night!

Same shit, different day...

So, remember those knots I was talking about last night? Yeah, well I retract the bit where I said they were in my stomach. Apparently colon would have been the correct body part.

*sigh*

No, I will not be sharing details. I think I've managed to desensitize my husband over the years to such topics, but I'm not on some crusade to inform everyone about my bowel movements.

I mean, ewww.

I have an "irritable bowel" says the doctor, and every now and again it rears its ugly head at me and then spews forth nastiness with a buttload of pain. Yes, anything construed as a pun tonight is likely intended.

Lets just say that sometimes my days are marked by "bouts" or "rounds" of a sport that takes place in the bathroom. Some days I win. Some days I don't.

Some days it just comes out a draw. Seeing as how I didn't just cash it in and hit the bed running, I'll call it at least a draw today.

Fortunately, I've got meds, and herbals that help keep it from getting so bad that I can't function. Before the meds and herbals, before I finally got to see a gastroentirologist (or however that doctor's title is spelled), it got to the point where it was damned near debilitating. Stress can both set it off and make it worse, and not knowing what was wrong with me made the stress that much worse too. Downward spiral. Not pretty. I spent hours in my bathroom in tears and put myself through dietal hell.

Tip: never leave a glass of Metamucil sitting on the counter for a half an hour before drinking it. Not that you could drink it if you did, but you may never want to drink that crap again after you see how thick it gets... *shudder*

Anyway...

So, my latest google quest (probably for tomorrow sometime) is to find cute animal clip art to model my sketches for Jareth's bedroom walls off of. If we're going to paint little animals and fun stuff, I need to know how to actually draw it first! Eep! My drawing class wasn't in cartooning! I do have one class left this Thursday before it's over, so I may have to ask my teacher for tips if there is time. I did manage to make a reasonable approximation of Winnie the Pooh from one of my son's books today though, while I was testing the waters a bit in my sketchbook. Brian seemed to like the bird I drew.

But that's all for now.

G'night!

And now,

Would you rather:
1. have agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) OR claustrophobia (fear of enclosed places)?
I think claustrophobia would be easier to have. It's easier to avoid being confined, but I'd hate to think of not being able to go to some types of activities because they are held in parks or fields.
2. find out now that you will die exactly on your 70th birthday OR never know?
Although it would make the planning for it easier, I suppose, I'd really rather not know. It kinda would make it all feel pretty anti-climactic, don't ya think? "DING! Time's up! Okay, you're done!" No, I think I'd rather have it sneak up on me. Besides, that's not a lot of "retirement" time. I want to party it up for a while after we retire!
3. have your grandmother walk in on you trying on risque underwear OR your child?
Well, right now my kid is too little for that to have any lasting impact on his life, although I hope that I will raise him to be open-minded enough that it wouldn't have an impact anyway. Grandmothers (though mine are dead - so that would really be creepy), tend to be a bit more old-fashioned and I wouldn't want to offend one.
4. rid the world of cockroaches OR narcotics?
Cockroaches. No contest. *shudder*

Jobs & Remods, Jerks and Quirks...

Though he has yet to post it on his own blog, Brian will return tomorrow to the wonderful world of "employed", in a term customer service position. The job lasts for a year to 18 months, so it's not a permanent position or anything, but it does pay more than unemployment while he continues to send resumes out for something a little more solid. Ironically, he got this job through an agency that called but hasn't met him or tested him yet. He interviewed for the job over the phone earlier today, which I suppose makes sense since it's a job where he'll probably be on the phone pretty much all the time.

Also today, I finally finished the touch-up and such on Jareth's future bedroom. Which means that Saturday's project will be to paint the fun part!! We're going to sketch some of it out first, but we'll be putting clouds on the walls and ceiling, along with an assortment of other fun stuff - like Brian wants to make a little mousehole with eyes peering curiously out - I'm so excited! I've got my box of acrylic paints already in there, and I'll be picking up some gray for shading the clouds during my errands this week. I promise to take some pictures when it's all done and show one or two of the best ones here.

*grin*

A matter of frustration today was having to delete 30+ comments that were placed on this blog as well as two of the others, all from the same person using 3 different IP addresses. This one was for depression medicine. Maybe the person ought to try taking the damned stuff - if it works so good, then maybe they can get a f---ing LIFE instead of dicking around with my blog!

*rolls eyes*

The quest for wordpress workability continues, but the troubleshooting has yet to yeild anything. I fear I might not be able to get answers until it is properly hooked up to my domain name. Don't know.

The quest for the remains of the car key to Brian's car is still on as well. I just ordered the repair manual for it through amazon.com, which will hopefully tell him how to get the last bit apart to finish disassembling the lock assembly or whatever. I am so not the car-mechanic-girl. If you want it drilled, sawed, hammered, plastered, or painted - I'll likely be happy to do it, but if it involves getting near greasy car parts - count me out.

Yeah, I know - how girly. Just remember - I'm the one who usually does all the nasty scraping to get the shit off (literally) when replacing toilets around here. It's not the grease that scares me, it's mostly the $100+ replacement part costs if I accidentally break something in there.

More adventures tomorrow, when I officially get to return to just being "mommy and homemaker" again for now. I feel some of the knots in my stomach unravelling already...

I really had no idea that having one little boy was going to turn me into such a homebody!

G'night!

The worshipping of tiny feet (and other God-complexes my kid is likely to have)...

I must come out of the closet.

I have a foot fetish.

Not the usual kind of foot fetish. I mean, if Brian suddenly asked me to suck his toes I think there would be a long conversation detailing just how drunk he'd have to get me and how clean those toes would have to be before I'd even consider such a thing. Not my ball of string, you know?

But baby toes? mmmmmm...

Not that I suck on them, mind you. That would be silly. I kiss them, tickle them, play "this little piggy", massage them, wash them, and otherwise worship those beautiful little baby feet.

I am addicted.

So, while Brian was away for a while this evening, I spent a considerable amount of time on the floor being crawled over, climbed, hugged, getting "eskimo kisses" (rubbing noses, for those who don't know), playing with musical toys, playing peek-a-boo, and worshipping his little feet.

I think he knows. He refuses to keep socks on for longer than five minutes at a time unless he actually can't reach them to pull them off. He likes to wiggle his toes around. I think he's teasing me. Calling me back to play with his feet again. I mean how can I resist...

*smiles*

In other news, I'm going to be messing with some web stuff again soon. I've finally bought server space specifically for rayndragon.com, so those of you who've linked to me or bookmarked me at rayndragon.quickshtick.com might want to switch it. I'd had rayndragon.com forwarding to rayndragon.quickshtick.com, but the domain name was coming up for renewal so I thought I'd finally get it some space of its own. That, and I think I need to move this blog and Quick Shtick Writing into separate databases before I run out of space on the QSW server. Maybe then I'll finally separate the stories into blogs of their own as they are finished. That way I can put them in a more readable order when they are done.

I'm also trying out Wordpress as I make the move. I'm going to start with DragonBytes first though, since it has hardly any posts so it's easier to move once I've got the thing set up. Their instructions said "five minute installation", but I had a ton of problems and don't have it set up yet. Then again, it might have something to do with the fact that the domain name isn't attached to the server yet, so it's all a jumble where rayndragon.com is going to be residing soon. My poor head started hurting. Looks like I need to learn a bit about what the difference is between .html and .php? Oooof!

That's all for now though...

G'night!

Mmmmm...

Okay, this bread mix is phenomenal! I bought both the wheat and the white when we were at the party last Monday, and I made the wheat tonight for appetizers with their "garlic garlic" seasoning which you can use in a dip.

Whole loaf. Five people + one child. Loaf gone.

In fact Jareth hardly ate anything at our actual dinner tonight, since he couldn't seem to get enough of the bread beforehand.

But I don't blame him. It was sooooo tasty!

I also made this yummy corn pudding recipe that seems to go over well. Along with salad and Brian barbequed up some chicken on the grill. As it's getting colder, we figure we haven't got much time left to do any grilling. We decided to get at least this one last one in before the cold keeps us from wanting to stand outside while it cooks. It's been nicer this past week, except for a little rain, so we're trying to enjoy it before the cold, icky winter starts moving in on us.

Tomorrow is Monday again. Back to job hunts and dealing with the stuck key in Brian's car's ignition...

*groan*

G'night!

Eric, the half-a-key?

Hrm. We are suddenly down to one car for a hopefully short, yet undetermined amount of time.

Why, you ask, would my husband's car be out of commission?

The key snapped off in the ignition.

ACK !

Three locksmiths told him over the phone that they couldn't give him any guarantee that they could help. Apparently on Monday he plans to take the entire ignition and steering wheel apart.

I only hope he can put it back together again...

Eep!

On a more positive note, the first coat of varnish went onto the floor in my son's future bedroom today. Two or three more coats and I'll be ready to start doing touch-up paint on some areas and clouds on the walls. At least the end is starting to be in sight. I just can't wait until we move him into it.

That's all for today.

G'night!

What? No Post?!

Yep, that's right. I didn't post last night.

Once in a great while it will happen that way.

Why?

In last night's case, it's mostly because a friend of ours showed up about a half-hour before I was to head out to class. He came bearing an early Christmas gift:

Vectron Ultralite

Yep. That's a remote-controlled flying saucer.

We got it charged up enough to fly once before I had to go to class. Since I was leaving, I got to do the maiden voyage. Which resulted in a crying child and minor crash to the floor. Jareth still doesn't like strange, unexpected loud noises, and I couldn't land the thing on the first try. It zoomed up and bopped against the ceiling before plummeting back down when I let off on the power.

Then, after some serious child-hugging, I headed off to drawing class.

Where I finished something possibly worthy of scanning in. Now I just have to get off my lazy butt and scan it sometime to share here. But not today.

Our friend hung out here for a while, and we ordered pizza after class and relaxed while exchanging web comic discoveries. He sent me to a rather over-the-top one, and I sent him to one on my list. I'm not sure yet if I'll be linking the one he showed me here or not, as it's not for the weak of heart. Or the easily offended. Or anyone without a rather morbid sick sense of humor. And an open mind on all things sexual. If I finish the archives I may add it to my newsfeed with the others if it hasn't totally offended me yet. We shall see.

In other news, I finally got the stain finished on my son's future bedroom's floor yesterday. Now I need to add the protective coating over it, but it got rainy today so the moisture is keeping the stain from finishing drying, and I wouldn't want to be applying a coat of anything with the windows shut anyway. Yeah, I know, I should have been finished with this whole project ages ago. So sue me. I've got a lot of other things to do too.

Anyway, that's all for now. I may post again tonight to make up for the whole "no post last night" thing. No guarantees though.

Later!

From owww to OWWW in four hours or less...

Felt icky today.

Decided to blow stuff off and relax.

Somehow ended up in the bedroom with Jareth and Brian, bouncing Jareth on the bed and playing.

Then, one thing led to another and...

No, not that kind of thing! More like one conversation topic led to another. Get your mind out of the gutter already will ya? Sheesh!

...the next thing we knew we were moving furniture so we could have the headboard behind our bed.

Our bedroom looks entirely different now. The furniture is all in different spots, including the bed itself.

I think I like it. We'll see how it feels when I wake up tomorrow morning - that's the real test.

But for now...

I ow.

What was I thinking? That wasn't relaxing!

oof.

G'night!

And now,

Would you rather:
1. eat a gallon of peanut butter in 30 minutes OR 100 hard-boiled eggs in 2 hours?
eggs. They'd go down easier, and come back up easier I expect.
2. french kiss a walrus OR lick the slide at chuck e. cheese?
I think the licking of the slide would have less lasting impact, so I'll have to take that one.
3. teach a class of hyperactive 3-year-olds OR a class of goth-punk teens?
Three-year-olds. It's even possible I'd find that to be fun.
4. have high tea with the queen of england OR a round of golf with the president of the united states?
High tea. At least I like the Queen of England. Not to mention that I like tea and hate golf as well.

The Modern Tea Party...

I suppose I'll drop this post into the "Family Matters" category, since it was one of my husband's relatives that hosted it. I went to a The Pampered Chef and Tastefully Simple party tonight. From some people I've heard of going to parties like these in the past, this is the new version of the "Tupperware" parties of before. Gourmet foods and cookware to make them in were the theme for this party. Some other parties these days are doing candles and even *ahem* "adult toys" as well.

It said "bring a friend", so I asked my sister-in-law to come with me - neither of us had been to this kind of thing before, and I wanted someone I knew along, since I don't know the hostess very well yet. We've met at parties and have kept suggesting we do dinner, but I tend to get nervous and hide in my anti-social cave before I'm willing to make a phone call. It was nerve-wracking enough just R.S.V.P.-ing for this party - I had no idea what to say other than "yes, I'll come. Do you mind if I bring Brian's sister too?"

Basically we headed over and sat with a bunch of other people while food was passed around the room in waves for us to try, and demonstrations were given of some of the cooler cooking tools from The Pampered Chef selection. Overall, we decided that the "garlic garlic" dip seasoning, the beer bread, and the "nana cake" were some of the best of the foods. Since part of the point of the party is for the two reps that tell you about the stuff to sell their stuff - I did buy a jar of the garlic seasoning and one each of the bread mixes. Since my sister-in-law does desserts on Sundays nowadays, she got the nana cake mix and couldn't resist one of the bread mixes herself.

The cooking utensils had a couple of things I wanted as well, but since the prices were a little higher I couldn't justify the additional cost without running it by Brian first. We'd sort of decided on a max budget and so I brought that order form home for the moment, to see if we have the leeway this month to allow a couple "extras" in or not. Considering he just let me buy a $30 costume for our son to wear on Halloween this year, I may not be able to justify it myself.

Overall, it was a fun thing. Not something I could see myself hosting (the lack of actual local friends to invite being one of the main problems, the clutteredness of my house being another), but definitely a fun thing to attend. I was pleasantly surprised, considering my aprehension at going. I wasn't sure quite what to expect, but I was concerned that it was going to be more "girly".

The odd thing is - it was girly if you want to be honest about it. All about cooking (read "whipping up a meal for your husband or family") all women in attendance (not counting children).

What have I turned into? A few years back I would have bucked against such a thing, considering it somewhat sexist and oriented at the "housewife" role I was so certain I would never want to take on...

Boy, does becoming a "mommy" sure change a person's view on their place in the world. Wow.

Although I may have caught the Tastefully Simple rep off guard a bit when I asked if she recycled all those little plastic spoons and cups we used during the tasting of the different things...

She doesn't. Tsk tsk.

She should be using little paper cups instead then, and maybe those little wooden sticks you get with italian ices sometimes, where they are hourglass shaped so you can use the ends for scooping. At least those would be biodegradeable...

Too bad I didn't think of that while I was standing there in front of her.

Damn.

Ah, well.

G'night!

Baby Bath...

Today, while splishing and splashing in the bathtub with my little boy, I found myself wondering at what point that fun will have to cease...

I don't want my child raised with the hang-ups about nudity that so many people in this nation seem to have. It seems that a lot of other nations don't see nudity as this huge deal, but we Americans place an awful lot of importance on the amount of clothing a person is wearing.

Now don't go signing me up for any nudist communities or anything, mind you - I'm not exactly without hang-ups myself, but I have that understanding in my mind that a person's body is a natural thing and I shouldn't have to feel the way I do about my own. In that aspect, I shouldn't have to worry about it until he's old enough to be bathing himself anyway - right?

But then I don't want some child services person coming and knocking on my door to tell me that some prudish societal law dictates that I can't be in the bathtub with my son, taking a bath at the same time as I'm helping him take his own.

At what age would they come knocking on my door anyway?

Rawr!

On one hand I don't want to bend to society's rules on some things as I don't want society dictating how my son views the world and lives his life...

On the other hand, I don't want him to be so outside of how society lives that they reject him as he gets older. He needs to understand how society works and live within some of its constraints...

*sigh*

So many ideals vs. actualities.

I have to wonder how many things I'm going to mess up as a parent, despite my best intentions.

worryworryworryworryworry...

Well, at least I'm pretty certain he can tell how much I love him!

Sooooooooooooo Much!!! (plus infinity)

G'night!

They're baaaack... damnit!

Every time I start to think that maybe people have gotten the message and stopped bothering to spam my comments with crappy little ads boasting "Free Online Poker" or "Penis Enlargement", I find a couple more have tried once again.

I've rebuilt Quick Shtick Writing twice today in order to get some off my site. Seems the weekend is hopping for people who have nothing better to do than spam people's blogs to try and make money deceiving people with crappy products that don't really work, or promises of big payoffs at web sites that you're probably not allowed to play for cash at anyway. I'd found a web site that did solitaire games, which I happen to enjoy, for money, but I'm not allowed to play for money because the state of Illinois doesn't allow me to play on their site. I guess some other sites have work-arounds, but since it was just an amusing pasttime that I thought I'd try, I didn't bother looking into it further. I don't need to get arrested or have the IRS come knocking because I won a buck playing freecell. Pfft.

I keep meaning to install this MT-Blacklist thing that will kill most of them from spamming my comments, but I'm also still considering moving to WordPress. I still haven't had time to sit down and figure out how it installs, and move one of the blogs into it to see if it works nicely or not. At least it's not supposed to need to be rebuilt all the time, the way Movable Type does.

Then again, it's on a long list of stuff I need to take care of, and I just haven't gotten there yet. I've still got computer boxes sitting open from the last big disaster, and repairs to make. I'm still working on the "filing project" and have boxes of files all over the place in the room. I've still got to finish my son's bedroom, my upstairs bathroom, and paint the headboard for our bed so we can re-arrange our bedroom...

I get tired just thinking about the list, much less getting stuff off of it.

And then, in case having the "list" wasn't bad enough, there's still the situation where my husband hasn't had luck in finding a job yet, so I may have to hop into another temp job, thus putting all the tasks off until I have time again, or having Brian do some of them instead, as he did with installing the new ceiling fans in our family room and the work he started on our yard.

I swear, some days life just seems too full of "to-do lists".

And we didn't really get squat done today. I got the dishes under control again, and Brian ran to the grocery store, but otherwise we blew off all the stuff we had hoped to get accomplished. Brian's having some sort of sinus thing - sounds like an allergy to me - and so most of the day was spent playing with our son, parked in front of the television, napping in bed, or playing on the computer.

One of these days, I might just have to kick this house into gear. Including myself.

Bah. *grumble*

G'night!

More baby steps...

I think today is the first official word. He still says "mama" and I think he's starting to know what he means by it, and he says "no" but means "nose" or "meow" depending on the inflection he uses. But the other word that was "no" until today, was "Nora", the name of our cat. And this morning he was very deliberately trying to enunciate it out - Nooo-rA. And he was very specifically trying to get our cat's attention when he did so. I think that Nora is the only "family member" that seems to be wary of him, so he's trying hard to earn her approval. What he doesn't realize is that she's shown that she approves of him by occasionally risking his excited little hands by coming close. They even bumped noses once. But she's smart enough to realize he doesn't know about control or "gentle" quite enough yet to not hurt her if she stays for too long. We're thinking that when we have the job situation under hand again, we may get a playmate for Nora, so she'll have someone more like her to relate to as well, since we don't have time to play with her as much lately. I made a huge point of paying attention to her when we brought Jareth home from the hospital, in order to stem any jealousy, but lately we've been busy and then spending more time playing with our son. I'm hoping that Nora will take to a new kitten, seeing as how she seems to have allowed Jareth in without much resistance.

And, this evening, his four to five steps increased to seven or eight for the first time. I thought he was just going to walk across the room, for sure, but it was a long way and he still bailed out to crawl instead. He's getting more and more confident, standing up a lot more where he's not holding onto anything. I could just burst, I'm so proud!

That's all for today!

G'night!

The lesser of three evils?

I almost went to bed without blogging tonight.

More than nine months of blogging, with at least something up here every day, and I almost totally forgot?

Where is my mind tonight?

Art class. Writing. Theatre. Other stuff.

After missing the last two weekly sessions of my art class, I was pleasantly surprised that the teacher was super nice about it. It probably helped that only four students showed up tonight though, as she had more attention available to spread out amongst us. The common theory was that the other students must have stayed home to watch the debates tonight.

Oh yeah... that election thing coming up...

Pffft. I didn't need to watch that boring stuff. I don't intend on voting for either of them anyway. I guess there's a third option - some Badnrik guy that Brian happened across and gave me a link to check out on. I can't decide if he's the lesser of the now three evils or not though, so I may just have to leave it blank or something at this rate. This Badnarik guy sounds like he means well on several of the issues, but it also sounds like he has no experience, whatsoever, in politics. He's a computer consultant now, and has done some computer teaching and programming or something for a living thus far, before starting to teach a class on the constitution...

Ummm...

This doesn't make the guy qualified to run our country, in my humble opinion. And having a nice lawyer as your V.P. doesn't make up for it either.

I fear they'd be eaten alive by all the politicians who know the game.

*sigh*

One day... One day we will have a proper candidate to vote for...

Yeah, it's a nice dream, but I don't believe it either. I do so like fairy tales though...

G'night.