I'll start with the positive and work my way to the really, really bad.

The funny highlight, though in a really unfunny situation: I heard someone use the work "verklempt" and not in a sarcastic, funny, or "ironic" way, which... maybe it's just my experience with some people around here, but it made me smile. I think it's probably a "you have to be there" situation, but we often use it to describe overly-emotional bellydance performances.

On the up side, my friend and I worked for many hours on the Project of Doom last night, and though it is time consuming (and I only have another week to finish) it is working, something I wasn't sure of. That is what I will be doing all today. I don't know if I'll get it done today, but I do have the holiday tomorrow, so, yay! That's pretty much it for the positive, and it's not all positive because I am still very stressed about getting it done.

There were a smattering of computer incidents, both work and personal, that served to irk me. Probably wouldn't have been so bad during any other week, but just annoying this week.

I took my car in for new brake pads and was told it needed $1,600 worth of work. I'd promised the next $1,000+ repair job would be it for the old Mustang, since it is 14 years old, but the problem is that the car I think I want (the Focus ST) doesn't come out for another 5-6 months. And there are no other cars out there I really want. I've looked, believe me. Luckily, one of the mechanics at work owes me a favor, and is doing all the work (and a few other things) for about half that, so it's getting fixed this weekend - though that left me without a car for a week. And while my other half had the week off, he wasn't too keen on being stranded (but also didn't want to get up to drive me to work, so I did just take his car). It was nice driving a car that would turn in less than a football field and actually stopped nicely (you don't realize how bad things have gotten, sometimes)... and had a cool Sync system (and would have bluetooth if I hooked my phone up)... and actually has more HP than my car (though it is front wheel drive, which does feel very different).

We did look at new cars, just in case, and the only car I liked was... a new Mustang. At first I was dead-set on the GT, because why buy the weenie Mustang again? Then I looked up the HP, and the "weenie" Mustang still has 300 HP. The GT has 400. I'm not sure I need 400 HP, especially in the snow. Plus the GT is $6,000 more. I'm pretty sure I can save the $6K and be happy with the lower HP. Still want to drive the Focus ST, because it is front-wheel drive, but I get the feeling it's going to be very much like driving the Fusion (which, as the Sport version, has a respectable 260 HP and really does get up and move).

...actually, I still want my Mustang to last another 3 years until the Fusion is paid off. Yeah, yeah.

Then there was some stressful personal thing this week, I'm not going to go into details about that just now. And then there was Monday morning.

( Warning: this involves suicide )

Well, I really need to get to work on the Project of Doom. I'm not feeling too motivated, but maybe once I get going... and once I get some coffee...

I've been so obnoxiously busy so far this week, and I have a ton to post and many comments to leave, but I also have a meeting in moments, so... oh, time, why are you always so lacking?!

But I had to share that I completed #5 of my 50/50 goals! It was a simple, and yet oh so challenging.

Balance on one leg for 50 seconds. With your eyes closed. Repeat with other leg.

It sounds so simple, and yet, so isn't. With my eyes open I have done over 2 minutes balancing before giving up out of boredom, but it took a few tries to pass the 50 second mark with my eyes closed on my right (weak and possibly slightly nerve-damaged) leg.

Give it a try! If you can do it, you're considered to have exceptional balance.

Only 45 more goals to go...

Situation: Sometimes, you just need to shake things up a bit, and the overly drastic, like shaving your head or dying your hair hot pink, are not always doable. Nor are long road trips (though I'm very much jonsing for one right now).
Tea time: I find afternoon the best time to try something new - not do early I'm still morning-grouchy, not so late it'll put me in a funk before bed.
Tea type: Obviously, something you've never tried before. This is getting harder, since I do refuse to pay too much for tea (and there's the matter of wanting individually wrapped tea bags, more on that later), but there are still a few out there.

Sometimes getting out if a rut is as simple as changing the route you take to the bathroom, sometimes it might require running away to a new country. For mid-level "blahs", I find new food (or tea) works very well.

This time I picked up some Berryblossom White tea, and not only did it provide a nice change of pace, I really like it - it may become another staple tea, along with Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Jasmine, and Chamomile.

Some of my new friends (hi new friends!) may not know about my goal for a year of 50/50 - 50 goals, of 50 items each, aiming for about a 50% success rate (that's what I tell myself, we'll see... I am at about 50% currently).

I just finished a fourth list of 50s!

50 Doodles/drawings - done! And with my friend dragging me into this art journalling project, there will be more. So far I've done 6 of those pages, 5 zendoodled letters, 19 end-of-the-world haiku/limerick postcards, 2 other postcards, 8 bookmarks, 8 zendoodled boxes, 1 card, and 1 random drawing.

This does not include pages in my Wreck This Journal book or the nine million drawings I've done on Draw Something.

Previous 50 lists accomplished: think of 50 lists of 50 things, 50 levels of Bubble Blast II, and 50 winning games of Spider Solitaire. Yes, I went for the easy ones first!

Yayyyyy! I also have another tea post ready to do tonight...

I'm terribly behind on my goal of learning 50 new words, so I went through 1word1day (LJ) and picked out a few. Then tried to use them in context to cement them in my mind... So I present, horrible flash fiction theater:

Glenda's chatoyant gown hung from her gracile body, looking a bit frowzy due to the fact that she was, in a word, symphoric, and had stumbled down a steep precipice fleeing her captors. Her troubles began when her lepusphobia had left her in a bit of a swivet when she encountered a logy rabbit who refused to move from the path, and in her haste to find a way around without rousing her gephyrophobia, she'd ended up in a agrestic cabin with a picaroon who had a decidedly vermiculate face. He told her he'd been caught in a dreadful pogonip and left stranded, and her, being quite the gobemouch, believed him. She also believed him when he said his "sword" was dodrandal, but that's another story. The quiquous thing was how he had convinced her to join a cult that practiced vivisepulture, not mentioning she was the next intended victim, not a new member. She'd managed to immerd (long story) her captors in a pit, and leaving them stinking and swearing (she mentally replaced those words with grawlix so not to sully her pristine mind), ran off through the woods.

All of the drama in my life seems to center around Facebook. That is an instrument of the devil, I tell you. If it's not sucking our life away with pointless games, it's causing tension and arguments among friends and family. Long ago I minimized my dealings with Facebook, setting up a special list of people whose posts I see and only posting about the most mundane of things... mostly crafts. I do not talk about religion, or politics, or even, really, sports. And I try to comment on things even less, unless it's completely flippant. So how, you ask, could I stir up drama this time? I'm glad you asked.

My profile picture.

( cut for the rest of the rambling, because, well, it gets long )

Bonus internet cookies if you can tell me the significance of her name being repeated exactly 24 1/2 times.

Situation: Tornado sirens are going off.
Tea time: Living in the Midwest I do have a bit of an overly cavalier attitude towards tornado warnings, because we have them all the time, but you really should get to safety when they tell you. Never mind the "tornado" that touched down was weak, and they predicted any others would be F-0 wind speeds (we get straight-line winds stronger than that), it was a block from my house, so I did go to the basement. Luckily, our basement is finished and we have an electric teakettle down there.
Tea type: Darjeeling, because it was the box out on the counter.

Hello, spring! Hello, storms! Hello, tornado warnings!

The weather really is the one drawback to living here, and the main reason I'd really like to move. On the up side, we did get some much-needed rain. On the down side, it all fell in a couple of hours - all 3 1/2 inches of it. That may not be much in places that are used to monsoons, but we don't normally get that here. On the down side, lots of flooding means a fun-filled day at work. Yay!

Situation: You've just donated blood!
Tea Time: After you've had something else to hydrate you better (Gatorade or Pickle Juice are great choices... what, don't look at me like that, I love drinking pickle juice!), but still while you are taking it easy and recuperating (an hour or so after).
Tea Type: I went with Jasmine Green, I think because the green tea sounded more rejuvenating and the Jasmine is a smooth and mellow tea, which didn't clash horribly with the after-taste of pickle juice.

I try to donate blood every 8 weeks. I'm O+, which, while not the universal donor, is the most common blood type. I've also always been a pretty model donor (other than being a slightly slow bleeder). I have good veins that they never (knock on wood) seem to have trouble finding, I don't bruise at all, I never had any side effects, and it never seemed to effect me in any way. The last two are changing slightly, unfortunately, and I'm sometimes finding that I do get a little woozy (usually an hour or so after donation) and I am more tired the rest of the day and the following day. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, or what, but I need to baby myself just a little more these days. Which is fine, and will not put me off donating in any way. It's such a minor price to pay.

I also wonder if the very slight bought of hot flashes and wooziness this time weren't because my blood pressure is way down. Since I've been hefty, my blood pressure has been a respectable 120/80 -ish. That used to be good, but now they're saying that's borderline borderline. No, I didn't mistype that twice. I'm on the borderline of being borderline. Whatever. I could lose the extra 60 pounds, I suppose, or give up the tones of salt and caffeine, but... I don't. I do exercise at least 3x a week, though, so... I do some healthy-ish things.

When I was in high school, many eons ago, I was still a salt and caffeine addict, but a much thinner one. My blood pressure was 90/60, which means if I was resting and got up to fast, I risked passing out. Not something I want to go back to. Genetically, I just have lower blood pressure. This time, it came in at 107/71, which is quite a bit down from what it's been. And might explain the wooziness.

But that's easily managed, I just drank my pickle juice, put on a cup of tea, and laid back with my feet up for about 10 minutes and all was well. And hopefully, my donation can help someone who needs it!

I've had a few memorable dreams, mostly weird ones (my boss backing over a gorilla in the parking garage we don't have at work being one) and a lot of the time I don't know where my subconscious comes up with the stuff. Last night's dream, though, I think I can piece together.

The world was ending, we all knew that (it is 2012, I'll be happy on December 22 when we can finally stop hearing about it) and we were pretty sure it was going to be a massive flood (it was storming and training last night). I was in the attic of an old house, the kind packed with weird antiquities. Also there were the guys from Top Gear (that's what I fell asleep watching). Everyone was a little surprised I hadn't finished the book I was reading, because, hello, end of the world. The water started to rise and when it was chin-high I handed out clumps of yarn smooshed together to look like sushi rolls that somehow morphed into edible cupcake-like things (because, obviously, I'd rather ready a cupcake as I'll drowning). And as we were eating them and the water was rising, I decided to go to sleep (it was late, I believe we were actually siting in candlelight).

The next morning (in the dream) I wake up and the house is dry, I go down the hall and down the stairs and everything seems fine. But the dream ends with me, still reading the book, as I'm walking towards the parking lot the next afternoon for another "the world is going to end" get-together (which I think speaks volumes about my opinion of doomsdayers - not that the world won't some day end, or that you shouldn't be prepared for natural disasters, but...).

I have a lot of comments to catch up on, I haven't forgotten you, but I really must do some work now (I know, terribly unfair!). I will try to catch up some at lunch, if not, after bellydance class tonight!

Yes, it's clunky and awkward and not terribly functional, but they don't limit you and you don't lose control over your pictures like you do once you pass a certain limit on places like Flickr (or actually require a link-back in the fine print). Of course, with the money saved on LJ I could upgrade a photo hosting site...

Anyway, the point of this post is not about photo hosting, though I needed it for the post, it's about crafts! I was in a bit of a hurry to do some crafting for a swap, and I saw a picture on the internet that I thought would work for my purposes:



The post it was in helpfully referenced the source of the pattern, Crochet Adorned. I thought about trying to get it from the library, but figured by the time it got transferred to my branch and all that (and if it had holds) it would be too late, so I decided to wing it. I sat down and whipped up what I thought was a close approximation of the design and was pretty happy with it. The next day, while browsing the shelves of the library for a cross-stitch book, there it was - Crochet Adorned. So of course I grabbed it, and made a bird according to the proper directions. Same yarn, same hook, same everything. Funny thing - I think I actually like my version better. Now if I can just remember (or manage to work out) what I did...


(my made-up bird on the left, the proper pattern bird on the right)