*sigh*

And another shaky season of basketball comes to an end. All we heard all season was 'this is not a typical Bill Self team' over and over and, guess what, no fucking kidding. No size, no team play, no seniors, no four year players and only one true three year player who took the time to develop. I HATE one and done. It doesn't work for KU. We need players to stick around and become a team! Wichita State blew us away because they're not a bunch of four and five star recruit underclassmen that leave after one year! They're a team, mostly upperclassmen who have played together for years.

*sigh*

At least the idiot governor got booed at the game.

Anyway, back to Saturday. I had my doctor's appointment, dreading how high my A1C would be because I've eaten crap--candy, carbs, white bread, icecream etc etc--and it was 5.7. 5.6 is normal. IDEK guys! Really gives me no motivation to diet if my diabetes is controlled by medication! So, because of the lovely prescription insurance, I asked her about the newest secondary diabetes med and the appetite suppressant she'd wanted me on a year ago and I couldn't afford it. The diabetes med is the new one that makes you pee out sugar, and I'm switching the insulin for Victoza. Of course I have three insulin pens left but oh well. In other news, I'd lost one pound, and my kidneys are, in her words, perfect. Considering that my mom has stage four kidney disease and kidneys are some of the first things to go for diabetics, this is very good. I go back to see her in a month to make sure the new meds are working okay.

Saturday's happy: good doctor visit.

Then I watched basketball all day and read fanfic.

On Sunday I convened and did all the other stuff in the service outside of the children's story and the sermon for a visiting minister. Very nice guy, the minister of the Wichita church; interesting sermon on the spiritual aspect of helping others, giving in service etc. Then went out to parents' to watch the final KU game of the season.

*sigh*

Sunday's happy: surprisingly good turn out (around 75 adults) for a visiting minister and the last day of Spring Break.

After looking at the price of laptops, I decided to stop by Best Buy on Monday and buy a new keyboard. New plan is to get a new laptop next August in time to get it all up and running and fic tabs open to take to England in September.

Monday that time of the month (which for the first time in about nine months is actually two months in a row--where are the damn hot flashes? I'm freezing here!) started so I was all crampy by the end of the work day. Dragged myself to BB for a $15 keyboard for which the checkout dude wanted to sell me a two year warranty. Yeah, lol, no. It's a tide me over measure until I get a new laptop. It cost $16.80something with tax. I'm pretty sure I can afford a new one if it breaks in a couple months. Then the grocery where every KU student was shopping first day back from Spring Break. Had spaghetti for dinner and icecream with chocolate cake because crampy and apparently I'm barely diabetic. (Oh, and my report said that they did what I assume is a finger prick style blood test to see what my blood sugar was and it was 94, perfectly normal. IDEK. I'm more and more convinced the massive infections I had for four or five years between the gallbladder and the ulcerated colitis is what made me have a blood sugar of over three hundred in the hospital two and a half years ago and had it fluctuating until, y'know, the massive infections went away last summer.)

I had a huge pile of work to do from the two days I was off and still, after two days, have a huge pile of work.

Monday's happy was: Dillons makes yummy chocolate cake.

I really wish people wouldn't leave critiques on AO3's bookmark system. You can't respond to (or delete) a bookmark! It wasn't a horrible critique--they said a few nice things, too--but it still irked me that I couldn't respond. Why didn't they leave a comment?! (Maybe they thought I'd delete it? I've only done that once and it was extremely rude and flaming. Most comments that aren't nice at least don't get all up on calling me a horrible writer who loves rape and crap like that. I'll leave those--won't respond to them, but will leave them.)

Today was a long boring rainy chilly day, but other attorney was out of town, so I was able to watch the last two Once Upon Time eps while filing and stuff before boss came in. Now at parents' "working" while dad's at a church meeting and mom's there organizing the choir music (since he no longer drives at night). I'm cold, want my heating pad, and plan to curl up with it and more chocolate cake and watch Forever and SHIELD when I get home.

Today's happy: Hook is so damn sexy.

It's becoming a recurring theme around here.

KU did win pretty handily over Baylor on Friday and then, after leading by 17 early in the second half, fell apart and lost to Iowa State on Saturday. *sigh* So we ended the regular season with eight losses after winning the arguably best/strongest conference in basketball. Naturally to the sky is falling crowd this means that we won't make it out of the first weekend of the tournie, Bill Self should clean house of all his players and/or resign, we suck, we've sucked all year...blah blah endless blah. And then there are the haters who bring up the 32 point loss to Kentucky EVERY POST on espn.com about seeding and potential.

At this point I hate Kentucky with such a fiery passion I'll root for anyone against them, even Duke.

They win it all and Calipari will be even more insufferable. He's the only coach that one and done really works for. I hate them both. One and done is ruining college basketball.

I managed to get some minor cleaning done on Saturday so I guess that's the happy.

On Sunday I slept in and blew off church. KU got a #2 seed as predicted. Yay, happy. Of course, not only are we up against Kentucky in the toughest region, if we beat New Mexico State, we may face Wichita State. Yeah, tell me again how the NCAA doesn't set it up so there are "interesting" games. I'm so rooting for Indiana to beat WSU. We gain nothing by playing them in the regular season, which makes us the evilest of all evil snobs to WSU fans. *rolls eyes* We used to play them in the early 1990s. They sucked! An idiot espn pundit stated that the winner would be the King of the Sunflower State.

Yeah. No. WSU has been relevant for about five years. KU...well, don't get me started with Naismith, Allen, Wilt the Stilt, Manning etc. etc. etc.

Also in our region: three Big 12 teams total (out of seven, er...why do two regions only have one?) and four teams from the state of Indiana. Weird. Of course Duke got a number one seed over Virginia and the easiest region. I hope they lose in the second round (no #1 has ever lost to a 16 seed and it ain't gonna happen this year.)

I watched The Royals on Sunday night figuring it would suck and I'd dump it off the DVR but I actually quite enjoyed it. Also filmed in England so makes me happy.

Monday was 85 degrees. So very happy. I also got mint green with green sparkles for my manicure.

Cooled off yesterday by 25 degrees. Got a lot done at work to gear up for today with no boss so I can pick brackets and read fanfic. Went to parents' for dinner and had Guinness stew and Irish soda bread. Last year mom managed to ruin the bread--no clue. This year it was yummy! Tuesday's happy.

Had a bizarre dream about having blood drawn (precursor to actually having it done this morning before work; and now I have to do a urine sample and take it back before 4:00, so very random) where they had me lay down on a hospital bed in a darkened room and it took forever and a cat slept on my stomach and I got up and wandered outside to a garden and the tube came loose and blood was dripping all over the place.

Have to run papers to the sheriff today in the drizzle and draft a few things, but not much else to do.

Tired. Looking forward to four days of bball and not doing much else. I'm going out to my dad's for the lunchtime KU game on Friday and I have my doctor's appointment on Saturday, then I have to go to church on Sunday since I volunteered to convene for the visiting minister.

Today's happy: rain, we need it.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Why do you have to ruin my life, Teen Wolf?

( spoiler for season 5Collapse )

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*sob*

Moving on...

This is hilarious: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/con-man

My garage door remote stopped working. I was actually going to be on time this morning but I had to run back in, get a battery, switch it out, try it--didn't work--put the door down, run back in, go out the front door, lock it...

I'm hoping in the dark kitchen I didn't put the battery in right. I have two garage doors. For some reason, the other (full of crap) side has three remotes and the one I park in only one. *sigh*

I enjoyed The 100 finale--OMG, finally figured it out, that was Jo from Eureka.

Adventures with efiling: Naturally as soon as I emailed the clerk asking where the damn petitions I filed last Thursday were, they were processed (like five minutes later!). I have a big pile to take the sheriff in a few minutes.

I spent about two hours at work yesterday off and on trying to make watchespn work on my computer. I kept getting a weird error message (not the 'this is blacked out' error message). I was signed in correctly with my cable company which is on their list of approved ones. A few times an espn3 (not on any of the tv channels) show would work but not always. Thinking I wasn't getting the games that were being shown on the tv channels because I have the tv channels, I er downloaded some naughty browser extensions that were supposed to be work arounds. Nope. I checked my LJ from last year and the only post before the Big 12 game was 'I hope I can watch it on watchespn' and then I never posted that I could.

Finally I called dad and got his Dish account info.

Gee, it worked.

So, all along it was my stupid cable company. Though I'm still not completely sure I'll get to watch it as it might be blacked out. So I'll be ready for the er naughty stream.

See, I'm trying to be fucking legal here, people! You're making me way too anxious over this.

Anyway, the happy from yesterday was getting it to work finally.

Today I'm wearing a KU top, something I don't usually do at work, but I've worn one every game, so I don't want to jinx it. We play TCU who beat K-State which is probably a good thing as the revenge factor can lead to ugliness. (ETA, just noticed that said shirt has two little holes over one boob. *sigh)

Well, due to that wasted two hours yesterday and the upcoming game, I actually have a lot of work to do so better get to it.

It's been lightly raining, though it's in the mid 40s. It was gray all yesterday too. Supposed to stop soon, though.

Today's happy is that gas has dropped to $1.99 a gallon. I can't remember the last time it was under two bucks! Ten days ago I got it for that price but that was after using forty cents off a gallon with my grocery points! So it's dropped forty cents in ten days. Too bad I still have half a tank, though I may fill it up anyway.

Maybe I was still in a daze from seeing that because when I started my coffee (Keurig), I didn't put a cup under it.

Yeah.

IDEK man.

I napped last night and got no writing done. *sigh* I did watch the last two eps of The Librarians. The Santa one was adorable, but then when isn't Bruce Campbell adorable? The other one had Kate Argent as the baddie. ;)

So I have to edit my Yuletide fic today, and tonight, after the KU v. Temple game, I HAVE to clean the house. At least I'm down to just finding a child for the Christmas Eve Service, and I got all the readings sent off to everyone.

This afternoon I must do the billing at work and go file stuff at the court. And get signed up for the stupid efiling.

But, first, lunch.

Keeps logging me out.

In happier news, I got both my Yuletide fics done. Thank the good gods. Second one isn't edited and won't be before the deadline but I'll get it uploaded. It's a character piece. The other one is smut. Neither is long. *sigh* So, that's today's happy.

Work was busy. I skipped the building potluck which for the last two years has just been the receptionist and the one paralegal. But Fridays are bad for me. Though the para and I did grouse for a bit over the coming efiling.

I got the order of service for Sunday off as well as the readings to the readers and T will be doing her guided meditation and will bring "Here Comes The Sun" on cd. Still struggling to find participants for Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow after doctor's appointment, I need to wrap some more presents (including the one I have to go pick up tomorrow as I ordered it and it's finally in) and tidy the house for dad to come over for the KU game at 2:00. Then I have to work on the script for the service on Sunday and find the candles and tray I bought last year.

Right now I'm going to either watch TAR or read fanfic. Well, first I need to upload this fic.

Even though I'm getting stuff done, I feel like I'm overwhelmed so I just sit and read fanfic. *sigh*

I did get my cards done while catching up on some tv last night. I did not write anything.

Today was crazy busy. I'd forgotten until I got to work and opened the email that I had to go to this stupid webinar over lunch. See, our district (county) court decided to make efiling mandatory come January 5 and all the attorneys are flailing and panicking. I refused to use it until it became mandatory and now it is so, because sending my boss would have been a useless failure, I had to go.

The fact that they couldn't get their XP computer to work right and so we missed the first five minutes and then they lost the feed for a couple minutes at one point doesn't inspire confidence that our court is going to be handle this at all.

While it's not all the complicated, it's going to be time consuming. Whereas it used to take just a few minutes to copy and prepare documents for filing, I'm figuring your basic petition is going to take at least fifteen minutes to get set up and efiled. And then to actually get service on anything, the court will send those documents back and we PRINT THEM OUT AND PHYSICALLY DELIVER THEN TO THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT WITH THE CHECK FOR FIFTEEN BUCKS. Jesus, could this be more clunky?!

Other attorney went to the webinar a couple weeks ago and tried a test document and it was rejected. *face palm*

And it's going to cost us $2.00 more to file anything that has a court cost. They already gouge us for surcharges because the state won't fund the courts, and now we have $2.00 more to pass on to our clients for every petition, garnishment, alias summons, debtor's exam.

So, getting our account set up and doing a test run is one more thing I have to do before vacay as my first day back is the day all this crap starts.

I still have a stack of work to do as evictions came in today and I needed to get those done first. I also spent a half hour on hold with blue cross to pay my first premium only to be told that they'd send me an invoice and, while I'd enrolled, it might take a month for them to process it all which made me panic and email my navigator because it sounded like I wouldn't be covered until they processed it even though everything on the marketplace website said 'sign up by the 15th of December, have coverage on the 1st of January.' Navigator said, politely, that the BC person was an idiot (who also tried to sell me life insurance). If I don't have my card by the first, she'll give me the number on it so I can use it at the doctor's office on January 2 when I have an appointment.

Then, after it poured rain last night, it sleeted on me when I left the grocery store. Blech

So I made pancakes for dinner.

I did finally get stuff ordered for brother, and I also wrapped presents tonight while watching the Bears just continue to suck. Brother got mom a canister set for the kitchen and it came in one big box but inside were four boxes which made me happy (today's) because I love wrapping, the more packages the better. Plus I have like twenty different rolls of paper and try not to repeat at all.

Slowly starting to get holiday cards. Got one today from my cousin, Julie. Also got my Secret Ho present though I'm not unwrapping anything until Christmas because the more prezzies the better.

Mom and I are trying to pull Solstice together. It may just be us. *sigh* At least we have the music set. I need to spend some time tomorrow emailing people about participating in Christmas Eve and some time Amy and I need to find time to practice the song I'm singing for the Sunday after Christmas (I sang it last year, Do You Know A Secret) but we still need to run through it. Maybe after choir on Wednesday.

So, tomorrow night mom and I work on Solstice. Wednesday night I have choir and Thursday mom and I are going to the community theatre's production of Mary Poppins. I told her I can't come over on Friday--I may very well be writing Yuletide fics then. *sigh* Naturally I have a firm idea for the pinchhit--that never fails but then I picked it because I knew I could write it--and only dim ones for my assignment.

And I can't eat anything after 8:00 p.m. tomorrow because I have blood tests on Wednesday before work.

TOO DAMN BUSY.

The cold continues to linger (both outside--last night it was in single digits) and in my body. I actually felt pretty good all weekend and then horrible yesterday. More on that in a minute.

KU did not play great against a very good, experienced UC Santa Barbara but we led most of the game and won. Still, I figured after watching us struggle to shoot, we'd get skunked by Kentucky on Tuesday...until Kentucky was actually behind at the half on Sunday against Buffalo.

I can't remember if I did a happy on Friday, but I had a second one. Not that KU won, but that Missouri LOST to UMKC--University Missouri at Kansas City, a team that lost TWICE last year to my other alma mater, Emporia State, who we beat by like fifty in our second exhibition game last week. *snortle* Yeah, Missouri, you're doing SO great in the SEC. Also, there was hardly anyone there to watch their home loss. KU sells out for exhibition games in blizzards.

Saturday I goofed around, read a lot of fanfic, watched football, and watched KU lose massively to TCU.

Oh, wait ...

KU NEARLY BEAT TCU. The number four ranked team in the country! We led deep into the fourth quarter. If we hadn't stupidly had twelve men on the field near the end of the first half which negated a pick six, we could have won this game. We lost by three or four. If we beat an unranked Oklahoma this Saturday (unfortunately at OU because we play so much better at home) Bowen should be named headcoach and I'm on the phone on Monday getting season tickets for sure.

I think Bowen should be named HC anyway. In just a couple games he's got these two star players playing like five star ones. They're enjoying themselves; they're working hard; they're not giving up. It's obvious they have confidence in Bowen and he has it in them.

On Sunday I started working on the Teen Wolf BB that was rough at 12K. The final draft was due that day. As I waited for the 'how to send in your final draft' post, I edited and added about four thousand words, mostly of smut. And then right before bed the post appeared that said they were pushing the date back to this Friday. Oh well. I have a fic due on Thursday I haven't even started (for reasons I'll probably get into once I get it written), and if I'd known that early, I'd have procrastinated. Instead, I've sent in my final draft and the art is done and in as well. :)

Please stop me from writing ABO, all human, Stiles with girl parts, fics, please and thank you. *face palm* Hopefully I've gotten it out of my system. Though I am pleased with the fic.

Also, the Chiefs won. Still with no touchdowns scored by wide receivers, which every pre-game show mentioned AGAIN.

So, Saturday's happy--KU football was fantastic even if we didn't win. Sunday's happy was that I finished a big bang.

Monday had little to be happy about. I had to go to work because I had all the closed files to file away as well as several documents to draft and wasn't sure when boss would be back (he came back last night so there was stuff waiting for me this morning). I felt like crap, lowgrade fever, headache most of the day. I was an hour late to work and left ninety minutes early.

Oh, and the leg rash came back.

I had an allergic reaction to my shoes.

See, I have these cute grey wool flats and I often sit with one leg or foot tucked behind the other. Last Spring I got the shoes soaking wet and it's quite possible that I didn't wear them again until last Wednesday because they're winter shoes. I'm very allergic to wool. Apparently when you get wool wet it makes the allergic part concentrated. I wore the shoes again Monday and around 2:30 I realized my feet were itching, looked down and my legs were bright red and blotchy. And very itchy. Stupidly I did not think to wash my legs for about five hours (last week the rash was discovered during my pedicure and she probably washed all the allergen away) so while I used Benedryl spray, my legs look like I have poison ivy or something. They don't really itch anymore and the red is fading, but very ugly.

I'm giving the shoes to my mom.

It's not like I don't know I'm allergic to wool--when I was a toddler I fell asleep on my grandparents' wool carpet and woke up with a red itchy face and neck. I don't wear wool clothes, though I have a fully lined wool coat which I never wear without a cotton knit scarf around my head and neck. I went through dozens of pairs of leather gloves at Harrods last year to find a pair that were lined in nylon over cashmere. But, it's possible my allergy has gotten worse.

I am pretty sure at least that it's not the sulfa drugs causing the reaction because surely it would be in more places than my legs. Last week, the flushed skin on my face and chest were due to the fever coming on.

My Monday happy is that my Yuletide drink swap came--really nummy, smooth and creamy coffee. Oh, also I ran my dishwasher.

I forgot to mention that I went to wash dishes and run the dishwasher on Saturday and the sink backed up in the non-disposal side. I poured a bottle of draino down it but it didn't completely clear out and would back up when I ran the disposal. I let it sit overnight and mom brought me half a bottle that I ran down the disposal side and it seemed to work but I decided to again let it sit overnight. I was running out of dishes, though, so I finally ran it last night, getting up to check each time I heard it draining, and it was fine. (This was a major concern as those who've been around here for a while may remember that the hot water pipe will freeze if the exterior temp drops below 18 or so, so I run hot water anytime it might do that and it was to get to 7 degrees last night--I put a space heater on in front of the open cabinet and that worked and I'll keep doing that because my electricity is nowhere near as expensive as my water when I have to run it all night). Because the dishwasher used to be on the non-disposal side of the sink and then moved to the disposal side, the water from the dishwasher runs backwards, through the non-disposal side and down the disposal side. I used a flashlight to watch this fascinating event.

As mentioned, boss is back. I didn't have tons to do and still don't. Hopefully he'll be out most of tomorrow. I'd like to watch the two hour OUAT from this past Sunday or go find TVD from the last two weeks because sadly no one has uploaded them. Someone always loads Bones so I may have to switch out what I DVR and what I do the naughty on. I record TBBT, too, and while someone usually uploads that, I don't want to wait several days for it.

I decided early on to skip going to the parents' tonight as I'd be out there till around 11:00 (because KU plays around 8:30-9:00) and it's a good thing because the lowgrade fever came back around 3:30. Here at home I can sit on my couch in my jammies with my heating pad.

I don't expect us to win tonight, but then I didn't expect us to beat Duke in this tournie last year. You never know.

As I'm recording two things from 7:00-9:00, I may have to start watching upstairs. Luckily it's on espn, the only sports channel I get without a digital box/dvr.

So, I came home and discovered I finally have a whole deck. They were wrapping up as it was getting dark. It's not done--a few boards need to be trimmed down, steps and railing added, but it's supposed to warm up through the week into the fifties by Saturday, so hopefully they'll get it done.

Oh, it snowed last Saturday. Just a dusting, not the four inches we were supposed to get, and then another dusting overnight that lingered into Monday on the deck due to the bitter cold. Stupid polar vortex. It's still fall!

So, today's happy is the deck and the fact that my backyard looks like a normal backyard.

Also, I'm at 94 posts on phog.net, the KU bball (and fball) forums. I ignore it most of the year, but find it amusing to follow during the basketball season. Dad downgraded the average age (or intelligence level) of the posters from sixteen to fourteen. *snort*

Someone uses a Buffy icon, though. Okay, it's actually Faith in Buffy's towel-wrapped body, but...

I like the guy who has an portrait of Charles II. Well, he's an idiot, but the icon is cool.

I'm, surprise surprise, ladyoneill, and probably one of about three actual real women on there. Proven by the current game thread. okay, Olivia Wilde's boobs are great, but.... (Also for those of you who are going 'why is Olivia Wilde in a KU game thread, her fiance, David Sudekis, is a huge KU fan, grew up in KC I think, and has brought her to games before).

Oops, I only have one thing recording from 7-8; could have watched bball instead of Sleepy Hollow...

Great, MSU just fouled a successful three point shot...

I need to go take my sulfa pills while I have a full tummy. My headache is back.

Every time I hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (in this car commercial) I add 'at the lakeside mall' on the end. For the life of me, I can't remember where that's from. Probably could google it.

Wednesday was going along okay. I'd been working on my polybigbang. I was pleased with my rose gold/light bronze manicure. I even trundled off to court and had a discussion about the stupidity of making us efile everything and use Word which I hate because apparently their system can't handle RTF files unlike every other system in the world.

My face was still very red but I was sure it was windburn.

I went off to my pedicure and while there wondered why there were red splotches all over my feet (the water wasn't hot; no new products being used) and my feet were bright red. Looking up my legs there were splotches all over as well as on my chest and stomach. None on my arms.

None of the itched except for my face and I blamed that on the powder I'd slathered on in an attempt to hide some of the redness.

I hadn't eaten anything new, hadn't switched soaps or detergents or anything, and I've never been allergic to anything like that anyway which made me worry about the one new thing introduced into my system--the sulfa drug.

Anyway, the red started to fade by the end of the pedicure and I felt fine, so went to choir practice where we ran through all the Christmas songs.

Got most of the fic done and sent off and approved, so yay!

Did not sleep all that well and woke up not feeling great--very dragging and congested and oh, look, feverish.

So...a cold. I had a ton of work to do (due to spending a lot of time ficcing) so I dragged myself to work and lasted about four hours before heading home where I dozed a lot while watching espn and nfl network programming. I had stopped at DQ and got some lunch and then didn't eat anything the rest of the day. Fever was low grade and came and went.

(Have I mentioned that it's bitterly cold outside too which doesn't help?)

Yesterday's happy was that my county issued the first gay marriage licenses and marriages were held. :) There's still legal crap going on, but there was a ruling by Judge Sodameyer on cases directly concerning my county and Sedgwick (where Wichita is) so people can get married there. Other counties are doing so as well. Of course the state government will fight tooth and nail until the Supreme Court overturns the constitutional ban in Kansas, spending our tax money stupidly as it's a lost cause.

Woke up feeling better today. I forgot my thermometer but I don't think I've had a fever. I'm not as draggy. Still sniffly and coughing a bit and my eyes have been itching and heavy feeling all week. Not as blotchy either. I stopped taking the sulfa drug and will restart it tomorrow and see what happens. If it's the reason, I'm screwed. I can't afford the non-generic nor can I swallow the and they're time release so I can't chop them up.

KU basketball starts tonight for real so I'm wearing my "Addicted to KU Basketball" tshirt--I usually don't were sports t-shirts to work. So that's today's happy.

I plan to hole punch and organize files this afternoon while catching up on Once Upon a Time. Exciting.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow. 90% chance. 1-4 inches. TOO FUCKING EARLY! I am SO glad I went to last week's football game and not this week's.

Oh, did I mention that on Tuesday I got a phone call from KU Athletics asking if I'd enjoyed the game and, of course, if I want to buy season tickets for next year which I'm still seriously thinking about The price is the same as this year through January 18 (and for one more game than this year).

Gas is down to $2.75 in town. Weird. I filled the tank yesterday, saving 30 cents a gallon using my grocery card.

Yuletide swaps have gone out. I've heard from my drink and book sender and heard back from my drink recipient but haven't heard back from my book one whom I emailed over a day ago to get their address.

Due to being sick I skipped my meeting last night. :(

On Wednesday I ran out of business checks so had to express deliver them. It said it would be four to six days. I hoped they'd be here Monday or Tuesday of next week but they arrived today, so, yay, I got paid, and could pay bills and the other attorney and write a check at the post office.

I could now go to court and file the stuff I decided on Wednesday could wait till I got checks but sick...

(That won't stop me from going to get comic books and running to the grocery after work.)

This weekend while it's snowing and I ain't going anywhere, I have to finish the Teen Wolf BB as the final draft is due Sunday and I'm like 10K away from that *sigh*. Then I need to launch into various exchanges that are mostly due in December (and sign up for a couple more). Also need to do my wishlist.

Next weekend will be busy with downtown open houses, cleaning my own house and Thanksgiving service at church. KU plays football on Saturday at 11:00 so I'll tape it as mom and I'll be shopping (it's supposed to be in the 40s and sunny) and as the Chiefs play this Thursday we don't play next Sunday so house cleaning. One thing I do have to do this weekend while it's snowing is lug out the rest of the magazines sitting on my dining room table so that we can actually eat there. Recycling is picked up next Thursday. Some time next week I need to borrow dad's truck and haul a dozen bags of stuff to Goodwill, too, as they're sitting around in the living room.

I can't believe that two weeks from today is Black Friday which means two weeks from tomorrow I'll be decorating the tree as KU loses to KSU.

Or whatever...

I was feeling pretty good this morning and then I ate breakfast and blechy. I'm not sure it's the new pill since I haven't taken it yet (you take it after eating, so I need to go do that). Maybe it's still a combination. Just have to power through it. Good thing--no appetite so I should lose weight because I'm only eating three small meals a day with hardly anything in between (had a banana yesterday afternoon).

So I wasn't much in the mood to do anything yesterday including post here.

I did watch the first KU basketball game (yesterday's happy is the real KU sport has begun). Of course it's hard to judge during an exhibition game with a Division II team but we look better on ball movement than last year. Ukranian kid can shoot; Alexander is a beast--very impressed with his going to the basket and taking shots. Other freshmen have potential.

Really, it can't be worse than last year.

The first real test is two weeks from tonight against Kentucky.

Voting day. I'm going after work since I've been going home before heading to my parents' in order to feed Raine so she doesn't have to go thirteen/fourteen hours without any wet food. I'm not very hopeful that any Dems will win here. The one good thing, all the damn ads will go away. I swear, during the game 90% of the ads were political.

I heard from my spn reversebang artist and looking forward to working with her. :)

I wish Yuletide pinch hits didn't come in at dawn--they were all gone by the time I got up this morning. Not that I could have written for any of them.

Enjoyable Sleepy Hollow last night. I really like that the show isn't trying to throw the two stars together, that Crane is in love with this wife, not Abby. Then I dozed off so didn't watch anything else.

Apparently the military blew up some "old equipment" last night on the edge of town. Lovely.

Oh good, a church polling place was evacuated due to a fire alarm. The counting machine at another polling place isn't working. I got this letter last week about my voting record that ticked me off--not that I got the letter though a lot of people are unhappy about "big brother", but that it was wrong. It showed that I've only voted in two of the last four general elections. I have NEVER missed a general election. I've missed a few primaries due to being out of the country, but never a general one. All I can think of is that the records got screwed up when they moved my polling place about five years ago.

Well, boss called and asked me to work on a file on his desk so probably should do that.

Did I mention that I went five hours at work yesterday before realizing my top was on inside out? My boss thought the seams showing was the "style". *sigh*

After work I ran several errands and was so hungry that instead of cooking I got some Dillons fried chicken. Dillons is our local Krogers. They make the best fried chicken. On the other hand, their mashed potatoes stink so I ran across the street to KFC for those.

Went to the bathroom several times in the evening and overnight but it was okay. Still, kind of tired today. There was one point that every time I lay down, I was up again within a few minutes. *sigh* Still, better than it was.

The Royals pulled out a win, Oakland lost so we're now the #1 wildcard, but Detroit won, too. :P Still, we win tonight and we make the playoffs for the first time in 29 years. :)

I got zilch writing done last night. I hope to have some time this afternoon. I have got to finish this big bang that's due Sunday. Tomorrow night is out as we're going to dinner for mine and dad's birthdays. I got dad a bottle of wine--predicable--though I'm taking it tonight to their house rather than lug it to the restaurant, so it's sitting in the break room.

I need to mow this weekend, go to church, and see Mazerunner. The Chiefs play on Monday night so at least that won't take up time.

GAH

So, I've been not sharing something (well, my parents and boss know). About a week after I arranged for the two trees to be removed from the backyard and for a guy then to come in and get rid of all the weed trees, I received a notification of a violation of the weed/dead tree ordinance from the City. I had a month to respond and I did and told the guy that I'd arranged for work to be done but it wouldn't be until September some time so he put it off. Of course tree guy didn't get to me and September is nearly over but I was sick and wasn't pushing it. City guy called again on Monday and I finally got a hold of tree guy today who hopes soon. When I explained the situation with the City, he said he'd call them. Really nice guy. Apologized for being Pinnochio but he's never been this busy. I believe him--I got recommendations from my neighbors (not the ones who called the City I'm sure) for him and he's been in business here forever. I'm pretty sure the anonymous complaint is from the people behind me who tore down a perfectly good wooden fence (that blocked my yard) and put up a chainlink one.

Their dogs bark all the fucking time, yippy things. I felt like calling to complain about that--noise violation, peaceful contentment violation--but I'm not that kind of a person and, frankly, I let the backyard get majorly out of control. It's also possible that in the storm a branch fell into their yard.

Still, THEIR neighbors have had a completely dead tree in their backyard for years and as far as I know no one's ever complained.

Anyway, I'm a bit relieved. I think I'll have dad's guy come in next week and start work on areas the tree guys won't get to just in case the City wants to see some progress.

Two more weeks and another vacation day--Columbus Day. Yay.

Next weekend I hope to get back into the storage room clean out while the steroids are still giving me energy.

I have nothing to read--well, I have tons of fics I haven't read or caught up on, but nothing new. I'm thinking that means I should write...

Today's Happy: I seem to be on the mend; no accidents, no urgent need to go.

Very lame happy.

I did take some more imodium last night before bed and *cross fingers* I think it worked. Of course, I managed to choke on 1/2 of a caplet and freaked out and spilled water all down myself trying not to die and then had to run to the bathroom because stress always does that.

FML

I slept in until 10:15 or so, though not deeply, but still got around seven hours total. Went to work at noon and there wasn't a huge pile of work, thankfully. Also a 'write yourself a $50 check for your birthday' note. *g* I always know what my bonuses are because I write the checks. I was draggy at work and then the grocery, but then I've hardly eaten anything in the last five days. Today all I had was a bowl of cheerios, two packages of cheesy crackers, and then about half a can of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. I figure I've lost another three or four pounds since Saturday. Really not the way to do it.

I bought some non spicy, non dairy foods to eat over the next few days--tuna, bagels, soups, as well as some diet tv dinners that should be okay for my tummy.

Mom and dad seem to be fine so hopefully they didn't get it.

Okay, last inning we had the bases loaded with one out and only scored one (Hosmer was thrown out at the plate). This time, bases loaded no outs and we just scored two. Yay!

Boss working at home in the morning then out most of the afternoon so I hope to get some writing done. I drafted up my TW BB summary, but hope to get a couple more thousand words written before it's due tomorrow night. Hope to make it to choir practice tomorrow night, too.

Due to the choking, I ground up my new meds because they're the same size as imodium caplets and I'd been cutting them in half and, y'know, I choked on half an imodium. God they taste horrible. It's bad enough that I have this bad taste in my mouth (not sure it's rusty nails but it's blechy) all the time from them anyway, but I immediately had to brush my teeth with a ton of toothpaste to get the taste out. And I thought the iron pills tasted horrible.

Once upon a time I could swallow whole handfuls of pills at one time...At least I get a lot of my daily water consumption down in the morning--a whole 32 ounces usually.

I hope to drink some coffee tomorrow. Haven't had any since Saturday when I had a latte from Mcdonalds which was probably a mistake but it tasted so good. I have managed to drink some diet coke every day to stave off caffeine headaches.

I'm definitely allergic to something in my office. Within just a couple hours of being there, I was going hoarse. I was fine the last four days basically.

Dad's going to make fried rice this Friday for my tardy bday dinner. Last week when I originally requested it for yesterday, I figured I'd only eat a little because 1) blood test upcoming and 2) having to weigh on Saturday. Now it'll be post blood test and I'm not worried about gaining five pounds in three days. Dad makes the best fried rice--my last attempt was comparable but still not quite there. He also holds mine out and then adds the spice he wants because I like mine mild. He also makes the best omelets. I make the best meatloaf. Mom's is just never that good and we use the same recipe. Very weird.

And, now, a meme; I was tagged by delphipsmith.

Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag ten friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them! Except I'm too lazy to tag anyone. Do it if you like. :)

1. Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman

2. Neverwhere by Gaiman

3. 1632 by Flint

4. Islands In The Sea Of Time by Stirling

5. Princess by Devereux

6. Sharra's Exile by Zimmer-Bradley

7. Dragonquest by McCaffrey

8. Decline And Fall Of The British Aristocracy by David Cannadine

9. To Marry An English Lord or, How Anglomania Really Got Started by MacColl and Wallace

10. The Windflower by London

If you're curious about any of them, just ask.

And now, up 3-2, the Sox have the bases loaded with no outs and it's just the top of the fourth and both starters are out. Our middle relievers are so very suspect. *sigh*

( bodily problemsCollapse )

So I haven't been sleeping well due to all that, so I'm tired.

The steroid treatment ended on Sunday. I don't think there's any bleeding anymore so hopefully it worked for the ulcers. I don't have as much energy which is sad.

Due to the pain of sitting (see under the above cut if you're curious) I didn't get as much writing as I wanted done. I did get a couple thousand words done on each of the Big Bangs due later this month including the one I hadn't touched in two months. So, yay.

Sunday's Royals game was suspended in extra innings due to thunderstorms (it rained a lot, there was no wind, I didn't panic...too much) right after Cleveland went up 4-2. The game will finish on September 22 in Cleveland--we have three outs to come back. And then Cleveland went home yesterday to fall completely apart to Detroit and lose 12-1. Why couldn't they have sucked against us?

We did win last night, 4-3 over the Rangers, the worst team in baseball.

Teen Wolf was wonderful. The week before I missed the last fifteen seconds or so when Peter told Kate he was going to kill Scott, but I figured that was what he said since Ian and Jill discussed it on Wolf Watch, so it was nice they recapped that bit.

Bad Peter, needs a spanking.

Do women really sleep in bras? I'd find that horribly uncomfortable.

I can't believe the finale is next week! ACK! I hope that with the extended fifth season that means it'll come back sooner than next June.

Always nice to see the Sheriff in regular clothes. I have major issues with the insurance, though. My insurance doesn't cover me going to the doctor but does cover mental health issues, though it's possible Eichen House wasn't covered since Stiles and his dad committed him and not a doctor. The MRI should have been covered, surely they got a doctor to order it. Sheriff's gunshot? Definitely covered! Government workers usually have the best insurance.

Speaking of money issues--why isn't Scott's dad helping? Why do they live in that massive house if they have financial problems? Where did these financial problems suddenly come from because we had no real hint of them before?

And where's the rest of Peter's money?

And, Derek, honey, you're rich, stop living in a hovel. Though, dammit, he has a coffee table (fic issue).

So yesterday's happy was writing.

Not sure what today's will be. I feel crappy every time I stand up. Really, sitting is actually better. I'm suppose to go to my parents' tonight but that may not happen. Damn, their anniversary's this Friday. Probably should figure out something to get them. Flowers are kind of lame but easy.

Going to be hot today through Thursday (upper 90s) and then plummet into the 70s and low 80s thank God. It was apparently really nice yesterday, around 80, but I didn't step outside. I also didn't do laundry and am running out of clothes.

The meeting on Sunday went well. Mostly discussing changes to the order of service and planning future services. We're going to do a service some time on why every YA book these days is a dystopian future and they kill kids in them but there's no graphic sex. Graphic violence okay but sex not? Our minister brought up the fact that she has no clue about pop culture stuff and we have a lot of young members. Even though I'm old (probably only about ten years younger than her) that is one thing I know about. I want to do a service on why Joss Whedon is god...

Well, probably should work though no one is here yet but me.

Not helped by a dull headache and the expectation of my boss walking in at any minute (no clue when his plane actually gets/got in but he often comes into the office the day he arrives back from vacation for some reason). There are chances for storms tonight so maybe that's the cause of the headache.

I'm taking dinner to an elderly couple from church tonight (she was in the hospital for a couple days; he's in a wheelchair)--chicken salad, bread and cookies. I just have to throw the salad together and bake the bread (one of those pre-made loaves that's half-baked). Shouldn't take more than twenty minutes. I'm probably going to skip choir.

I got more written last night watching a pitcher's battle. I was in the car coming home from my parents' when the Twins scored their only run, making it 1-0 and I figured that was it, our third loss in a row.

Except that Gordon hit a beautiful two run walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth. :)

On national tv, too.

I connected with my artist for the Derek/Stiles bb and she's read my Peter/Stiles' fics, so that's cool. I hope to spend a lot of this weekend writing but I did last weekend too and I was sick for a lot of it.

So, yesterday's happy was the Royals, again. They're an easy happy to have.

Before I forget, today's happy is that I finally watched last season's finale for Haven--it was on the DVR when it rebooted some time and then wasn't on syfy.com for a weeks and then I forgot about it. I really like the show; I think it's developed very interestingly over the years from kind of just a monster of the week thing to a show with this deep and old mythology and mystery. Anyway, the finale was very good, and, since I took forever to watch it, I only have two weeks before the premiere of the new season!

A potential happy is that I'm only one bookmark away from hitting one hundred people who have bookmarked my Dark Side Of The Moon series at AO3. :)

Hopefully my headache will fade by this evening so I can get some writing done while watching the Royals.

three hours later

Dropped off the food. Had to squeeze around behind an idiot who got half stuck in the intersection I was trying to cross on a green light. They always think they can clear the intersection. Then saw a person doing the RIGHT thing and, even with a green light, not blocking the intersection (different one) in case the light changed and then a pick up truck rammed into her. This is all due to the road construction at the horrible intersection that I was driving around on other streets to avoid. I was glad to get home.

Just read the half page synopsis in tv guide on the Teen Wolf season finale and I may wind up being very unhappy. Remember, I didn't start watching until more than half way through season 2 so I didn't have to wait the year between Season 1 & 2 to see a certain return.

I won't stop watching but it'll kind of be like when they killed of Gabriel on SPN and, when he didn't come back (last season's fake out notwithstanding) my love for the show got a bit tarnished. Yes, I know, if I fell in love with one of the major characters on a show chances are I'd be happier as they'd survive (though that's not a given on TW after Allison).

*sigh*

Boss never showed up, btw. Headache still here. Lightly rained on me the whole way home from dropping off food (got a hug). Royals' stand in pitcher doing pretty good through two innings.

Alex Gordon just leapt into the fence to stop a potential home run ball (actually it would have hit the fence). "And a fourth gold glove is in the mail" one of the announcers just said. :)

College football starts tonight (only one game, no one big). :) I'm hoping that with more energy this fall, Saturdays will once more be Football Ficcing Saturdays around here.

Oh, and I obviously did not go to choir.

The Royals broke out of their four game losing street decisively!

Yeah, kind of shallow, but it made me happy.

Moustakis hit a solo homer in the second and then we failed to score on several opportunities and when Chicago responded with a solo homer in the fourth I figured 'here we go again' (losing by one or two runs because we can't get our runners in scoring position to the plate!) but then we had a beautiful fifth inning (aided by a couple throwing errors) and went up 5-1 and then later Moose hit a two run homer and we won 7-1. So nice to not only see scoring but home runs!

Final game is this afternoon so I'll listen to it while doing the monthly invoices. I also have my pedicure. Got my blood test--the request was there so that logically leads to my appointment on Saturday being on their calendar (last time the lab request wasn't there and the appointment wasn't on their calendar either, even though I had stood there and made it and had a little card with the date and time).

Saturday's going to be busy. Market, home to bake bread for church, doctor at 11:00, grocery, take bread to church, go see Planet of the Apes, plus Le Tour's time trial.

Last night I actually did three loads of laundry and FOLDED two of them and put them away. Energy man.

Also it hit 102 and was humid and I still wasn't dragging.

Back to high 80s today but then upper 90s Friday and Saturday before dropping back into the 80s Sunday and most of next week. IDEK

I have got to get some writing done as I have an assignment due Friday plus the fullmoon ficlet prompt is "catastrophe" and that just screams Stiles/Peter. *g* Or their kids destroying the kitchen or something.

But then with the Royals not on tonight, maybe I'll do that instead of catching up on tv after I watch Le Tour. Sadly Tejay lost about three minutes to the leader on the first day in the Pyrenees. :( He dropped to 6th but is still in the hunt. If he can hang in there, even gain a bit of time in the next two days, he is a superior time trialist and Valverde and the two young French guys ahead of him aren't. He could actually gain three minutes on them.

Last night while watching the Royals I organized my pictures on my computer and downloaded them from my camera. I dunno what this organizing kick is about. I also saved a bunch of free Amazon Prime music to the cloud and made playlists since I can listen to that on my phone.

Well, need more coffee and probably should start the invoices...

My ISP is farking around with the webmail and it won't load. :P Last night when I logged in, it showed I had four messages from June in my inbox.

I have over 2000 messages in my inbox.

I freaked for a minute before I went back to the main page where it shows the most recent messages in a list and they were there. They were also on my phone. I'm still getting email on phone. Ergo...they're farking around with the webmail. grrrrr

I actually need to respond to a couple people dammit!

As predicted, except for the American, Talansky, barely making it and losing like thirty minutes due to a sore back, Le Tour was pretty dull yesterday. I can't remember if today is another basically flat stage or if there is an HC (out of category aka fucking high) mountain at the end today. Can't check because might be spoiled.

For some reason comics didn't come in yesterday, not that I'm up-to-date at all. I really need to stop reading fanfic and start reading comics while watching sports. I'm like half a year behind on Marvel and more on others. I'm only halfway through Buffy Season 9 and now we're in 10.

I did mow. Exciting. Didn't actually get really sweaty until I came inside where the AC wasn't running due to it being too cool already so it was stuffy.

Oh, I did hear back from tree guy and it's going to be about $5K. urk But part of that is clearcutting the way to the trees which is part of what dad would be hiring the yard dude to do. He probably can't get to it until September but nothing's in danger of doing more than falling in the stupid mess of a yard anyway. And I knew I'd had a referral from someone--he's worked on my neighbors' trees over the years.

I also got my 'not a bill' from the insurance company concerning the hospital. I'd already gotten one for the doctor that was highish in that it was the rest of my $1000 deductible. The hospital was $6800. Insurance started by writing off $5000 of that and then paying half, leaving me with half as a copay of some kind except I'm pretty sure I don't have copay. I do not understand health insurance at all. I'm taking them to my dad to decipher. So it looks like I'll owe about $1700. :P How can people afford this?????? For a procedure that took 45 minutes.

Jesus.

And while I do understand sort of the reason the costs are so high and then insurance just wipes out huge amounts, it's stupid. My hope? (Vain, I know) When everyone in the US has insurance, the doctors and hospitals actually charge the amount the insurance and your copays are whatever will cover. So my hospital bill would have been $1800, not $6800. Reality, people!

Of course, I was shaking like a leaf opening the not a bill because I have no idea what my insurance covers and doesn't except it doesn't cover doctor's visits which also irks me.

I did not watch 24 because I discovered that the ep I taped last Friday that I thought was the penultimate ep was actually the one from before. The penultimate ep airs tomorrow night so I'm just going to tape it rather than try to watch it at fox.com I caught up on Under the Dome, Crossbones and Dominion (my one issue with Dominion? I don't find the lead at all attractive. I know that's shallow... Michael, on the other hand...Plus ASH is looking GOOD!)

Baseball returns tomorrow night. It's mom's birthday so we're going out for dinner so I'll tape it. I'm planning to see Planet of the Apes on Saturday. I really liked the first one (was never a fan of the originals). The only other movies I have any interest in seeing this summer are, of course, Guardians of the Galaxy, and that big storm one.

The Sidewalk Sale was going strong for about three hours already by the time I got to work. Lovely weather for it (high of 78 today when it's usually around 98) but I avoid it. I turn off the main downtown shopping street right as you hit downtown so I avoided most of the traffic though there were a lot of shoppers out (the first "block" is really only about six shops on one side and the courthouse on the other and then I turn to go to work). We do have a vibrant downtown, but today is the day to avoid it.

I cut down to 25mg of steroids today, yay. I actually slept through the night without having to go to the bathroom in the first time in....I dunno, years? Amazing.

Well, since boss is taking tomorrow morning off, I'm going to do tomorrow's work today so I can write tomorrow morning. :) Yes, bad me.

Trying to tune her out. All about a fence. Okay.

So I heard from tree guy yesterday--sounded like he was a thousand years old; it's a family business so I'm guessing it was grandpa. He said he was going to go by and look at the trees so I'm waiting to hear back from him. I told him I was embarrassed by the state of the backyard. He told me he was embarrassed by taking a week to get back to me the first time and he's seen it all, so... Mutual embarrassment fest. *g*

Managed to find enough work to do yesterday to leave some for today but still don't have a ton to do and boss will be here all day. *sigh*

I watched some of the All Star Game last night. Perez, our catcher, played the first four innings and handled himself well with four different pitchers. I managed to miss the AL breaking the 3-3 tie as well as our closer, Holland's, 7th inning because I was driving home from my parents' and couldn't find the game on the radio. But, yay, AL won. :)

I then caught up on DOOL and Storage Wars and then watched the first episode of the Strain which I quite enjoyed despite my squick over wormy things. I forgot the female lead was Mia Maestro; haven't seen her in anything since Alias but I always liked her. Also, bad hobbit, bad.

*g*

I'm guessing the differences in "vampires" will be explained as things move along. There's the big monster, the dead ones, the guys with flickering eyes...

Managed to spoil myself for 24. *sigh* In a fricking comment on tvguide.com I'll try to watch those tonight. Le Tour is pretty much a flat stage with some small (category 3 and 4, the smallest) mountains at the end, so I can skim through most of it. I want to rewatch TW, too.

A couple people want me to continue my Stiles/Lydia pregnancy one shot and I'm considering it along with the zillion other fics I have to write. *sigh* I started my fullmoon ficlet fic and have one paragraph. Yay. Happy smut but I have to find time to write it.

I have to mow when I get home. Blech.

In some kind of irony I've been rereading a very long fic that hasn't been updated since April and today a very long update appeared. :) So, something to read at lunch.

So...that's me so far today. Exciting.

Why on earth would I have nine refills on my needles (100 in a box, that's over three months worth) and yet the prescription expired last month?! Not a problem as they'll contact my doctor for approval, but either have just one or two refills or make the expiration date way out. It's not like I'm popping excess pills here. It's a needle.

Boy Brazil stunk it up yesterday. I didn't get to see any of it due to going to parents' after work and manicure, but I checked the score at half time and was shocked. No one scores that much in soccer! That was like a baseball score.

Speaking of...Jeez Royals, one bad play cost us the game.

Last appointment with my manicurist till September as her baby's due at the end of this month but she was having minor contractions already yesterday and the baby was seven pounds so she was hoping to have it. They still had no power at her house so much preferable to be in an air conditioned hospital even in labor! I have an appointment with the lady she trained so all's good on my front. I went with red nails as I have red toes and I'm actually wearing sandals today.

So I guess I was lucky my power was restored yesterday morning. On a side street off mine, there was still a big truck at 9:00 last night. Probably had a tree down on a line which was my manicurist' problem. The company restores power to larger areas first then works on individual issues. My worry was that I'd be one of the latter what with the line pulling away with the siding but it didn't snap.

Got everything set back up to record on the stupid DVR and did the naughty on everything else. Luckily, when you watch shows on non-networks they often reshow them a lot. I'll have to watch 24 and Under the Dome from this week on the network websites but otherwise I'll get everything, including this past week's Teen Wolf as they reair it right before the new ep. Also, the person who does the naughty on it did it last night so I didn't have to watch it at mtv.com. :)

Not enough Peter.

*g*

Do NOT want Derek/Braeden. Come on, honey, women are your downfall! I mean, of course they're not going to do a slash ship on the show but just be celibate.

Stiles should be in MUCH better shape than that.

Lydia/Parrish is becoming a thing in fic because of the ep.

I'm writing Peter/Stiles. Surprise, surprise. Unlike other Stiles writers who don't write him with Derek, I get no flack over this probably because I don't tumblr or whatever where all the insano fans are. Apparently there's a lot of slamming of non Derek/Stiles writers going on out there (people writing them with other people). Yeah, shipper wars are so fucking attractive. Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt about seventeen years ago. :P I'm just going to stay over here in my happy little Peter/Stiles world where I actually have people who like my fics. (Got a great feedback just now along the lines of 'As always, your writing grabs something inside me and squeezes til I feel I can't breathe.' See, that's why I write--when I'm not just writing for myself.)

So, the current fic, which I will finish before I post it and if it gets long enough maybe it'll be my Teen Wolf Big Bang, contains several things I never expected to write.

Alpha/Beta/Omega, which I do read sometimes (though there are fandoms I don't think it works in at all; TW not being one of them) but there are certain common aspects that I'm not a big fan of which I won't go into here. If you read the fic, you'll be able to guess.

All Human AU which I NEVER write and hardly ever read and don't really support because in many cases it strips away what makes the supernatural/horror fandom what it is.

Yeah, IDEK. *face palm*

It all started because I had AU gender norm on my trope bingo card and wrote a little bit about Stiles as an Omega. I've reworked that extensively as the opening of this fic, changing somethings about the universe I'm creating to make it make some sense. I even wrote up notes on the dynamics which I'll probably include as some kind of addendum.

Anyway...hump day and I actually have very little work so I'm holepunching while boss is in a morning trial which hopefully will go on all morning. Actually I'm typing this...

I watched half of Le Tour yesterday (since with the DVR rebooting it didn't record so I started it when I ran home to check on the power at 9:00 a.m.) It was a pretty boring stage after last year's winner crashed in the first five miles. Today is the cobblestones. It was taping when I left and I added an extra hour. Monday's taping of London, with an extra half hour, wasn't enough and my recording ended about six miles from the finish line! Dammit.

So, tonight I'll watch that and the Royals and hopefully get some more writing done.

Today is the reveal of one exchange fic, in a couple hours. :) I'm pretty happy with what I wrote; it's a bit short but I think pretty decent. I have three others I need to get on, due in the next couple weeks.

Last night, on leaving my parents', I almost forgot to take my food back home. *sigh* Sometimes I wonder where my brain is...

Dad's supposed to be stopping by my house and relatching my garage door opener. I'm too short to be able to yank the cord the right way. Then I can stop having to use the front door so I can stop locking the door from the garage that has no key.

I have chicken casserole leftovers for dinner. :) Mom made meatloaf last night and it's okay but so bland compared to mine. She must not use all the herbs I do even though we use the same two recipes and combine them. Actually, I think maybe she forgot the Worcestershire sauce.

Tomorrow I go down another step on the steroids, to 30mg a day. I do think it's working just because of some gross bodily things that are lessening up. Bodies are stupid, man.

Oh, I called my insurance agent but she said to get stuff checked out and if the chimney is damaged a lot, then put in a claim since my deductible is like $1100. I also emailed a couple tree places and, not surprisingly, they're busy, but I'm on the lists at least for call backs. Dad is going to help with the cost of the tree removal and then he's talking about hiring this handyman they've used to clean out the whole back yard (and hopefully reattach the dangling siding panel) and just put it in grass. Leave the couple old apple and plum trees, the cedars, any hostas that are still alive, but mostly just gut the damn place. Mostly it's full of bushy weed trees. With at least two of the big (sixty feet at least) trees gone, sun might actually get through.

I've taken so much money from them this summer it's horrible, but I can't do this on my own and, frankly, he planted all the damn trees to begin with! It might be nice to have a back yard that's more than a habitat for wildlife. I'll have to replace the deck as it's got holes in it (I was very careful walking out onto it yesterday to check the siding problem--hadn't gone out there in at least two years). The whole thing is probably rotten but I didn't fall through. But, that can wait till next year.

Of course, I'll have to mow more if I have a backyard with grass, but the neighbors should be happy the eyesore is gone...

Speaking of mowing, the new grass is growing nicely but the weed grass grows about four times faster. *sigh* I'll have to mow this weekend. We'll put some kind of weedkiller down this Fall.

Okay, I've babbled enough today...

I left off the travelogue in the United Lounge where my flight to Dulles kept getting delayed. When I finally boarded I actually drank a glass of champagne because I was so stressed. Flight itself was fine--I had a Brad Pitt day, watching World War Z (which was enjoyable but then I hadn't read the book) and Moneyball (which I love), and had the fish again. Dozed a bit but didn't sleep.

We got in one hour late, making up about a half hour in the air. My flight to KC was scheduled for 4:55. First thing I did was check my email to see if I'd been notified of a delay. No such luck. I stepped off the plane at 4:10.

Yeah, so not going to make my flight.

No fast track through passport control, no bag off first (first/business bags always come off first in England), long lines, no red/green for customs (really this country sucks at air travel) and then BACK THROUGH SECURITY THANKS TO THE ASSHATS OF 9/11. Our pilot had actually asked people terminating in DC or with long layovers to allow others off first and most people did but I was still in lines for too long, getting hot and sweaty and frustrated. Luckily, unlike at Heathrow, no carryons were being checked so security wasn't horrible though the stupid imaging box caught something and I had to be felt up (arms, shoulders; I'm pretty sure it's my bra that catches it). Passport control and Customs seemed to know a lot of people were in a rush and there were no questions.

Of course I had to go to another terminal, which meant catching a train! I hurried so damn fast and as I came off an escalator a cart was dropping a woman off, took pity on me (I must have been red faced and I know I was drenched in sweat) and zipped me to the train. Then, of course, my gate was the LAST ONE.

As I hit the first of three gates (with huge distances between them) I heard 'last call' for my flight and motored as fast as my stubby fat legs will take me. I got there at 5:05 and they'd held the plane. Didn't even look at my passport, just scanned my boarding pass and sent me through. And then I had to go outside and climb eight steps on shaky legs!

The kicker? I wasn't even the last person on. A flight from Madrid was also late and two guys came on about five minutes after me.

And then we sat for fifteen minutes before they even closed the door. Of course.

When I got off the flight from London I kind of had to go to the bathroom. I sweat so much, I didn't anymore. Flight wasn't full so our steward gave us whole cans of coke which was nice.

Landed in KC only about ten minutes late and my ride came in as I was waiting for my suitcase.

Home by 8:05 p.m. Thank God.

I don't mind the actual flying where flying is concerned. It's all the other crap.

Two hours is NEVER enough time between flights when coming in from overseas. Something inevitably goes wrong. My parents have six hours in DC. Want to bet their flight from London gets in early?

The only annoyance at home was that my stupid DVR rebooted while I was gone and dumped everything I'd saved including all of Fargo and Mad Men and the few things that had recorded or been set to record while I was gone. I dunno if I'll get either show. Might just wait until they inevitably due a marathon. I've gotten everything else and some things were repeated like 24 and PLL.

I stayed up until about ten and then crashed for eight hours or so. Went to work--nothing too horrendous, lots of piles, but I started working through them. The money was all deposited in the right accounts so that was good. After work I went out to my parents' to check on things, then went to the grocery and back home where I lazed around all weekend. I really should have mowed as we had a ton of rain while I was gone (hardly any since I've been back, of course) but I was too lazy. All I did was watch soccer, baseball (GO ROYALS, TEN IN A ROW, FIRST PLACE YAY), read fanfic, and do a bit of laundry.

Monday work went fine, making progress on the piles. At home I watched the USA actually win a soccer game and was dozing during the Royals which I'd taped when I realized I was warm.

The AC wasn't blowing cold anymore. It was the first really hot day of the year. Of course.

I managed to sleep with the fan on high and the house at about 80 degrees and first thing Tuesday called my AC guy who came by at 2:00. He put freon in, but the nearly twenty year old unit had sprung a leak and needed to be replaced. Great. I called my parents and they'll help. $2850. Gah. He said the freon should last a week so we set up a time for next Wednesday afternoon since I have that day off for my colonoscopy. I went back to work, on to my manicure, home...

And the house was hot.

Not even blowing coolish air anymore, just warm. *sigh* It was after hours but I called and left a message and there are major benefits to dealing with locally owned businesses that run out of their homes. She called back five minutes later and they could reschedule me for today and take payment next week when my parents are back.

I debated going to my parents' to stay the night but was worried about the cats being stuck in 82 degrees in a closed up house. With me there I could at least open windows. Most of my windows don't stay open but the two in my bedroom are two of the three or four that actually do so sleeping wasn't horrible. I watched the last two 24 eps. Wowsa. Watched the Royals win again. Happy. Was very tired.

The AC guys were there at 8:15 so I left them to it, trusting they wouldn't rob me blind. I went home at 11:30 to lock up and it was getting cooler already. Of course it was doing that yesterday, too, and I'm a big ass pessimist...

There's no reason to think that it won't be working when I get home but I'm changing my after work plans around and instead of going out to my parents' to set up Defiance for mom and then to my cat sitting assignment and then home, I'm going home first just to check.

I'm really tired still from the heat. It's also humid out. Miss London and the low 70s.

Yesterday other attorney dictated a tape and it actually ran out (15 minutes). Never had that happen before. *snort* I told him I'd be too busy this Thursday and Friday to do any work for him so he's been throwing stuff at me. Right now he's in KC, though, until mid-afternoon. Of course, I have boss' work to do that I didn't get to yesterday due to working for other attorney.

I don't like this busy stuff!

Royals sucked and lost again, another 7-6 game, though we made a valiant comeback, scoring four in the last two innings. *sigh* We just cannot win against our own division--this is a problem.

I'm STILL getting calls from Ford Credit in India. I went ahead and paid the full bill for April and May (and if I don't get a credit by July I'm pitching a fit) to get the calls to stop. Here I have unlimited calling. In England we have to pay for calls. Even though I don't answer them, those two or three calls a day will cost money.

Very annoying.

Started cat sitting this morning which didn't take me any time at all so I got to work early. It's already hot out. :P Turned the AC on here at work because it's getting stuffy. Of course, last night on the couch, with the house at 77 degrees, I had the heating pad on...

Stupid body.

I have no idea what to pack clotheswise. London is predicted to be in the 60s cloudy and rainy for the next week, but it was in the upper 70s a few days ago (with hail predicted, HAIL!) and that really means it feels like mid-80s if the sun is out due to all the concrete and glass. I think I'll end up with layers. Lightweight shirts/tops and my black knit cardigan and my jean jacket if necessary. Second day I'm buying leather gloves at Harrods. I lost one of my leather gloves this past Winter. With my tiny fingers it's hard to find gloves that fit, but surprisingly I might need them in England because my hands get really cold. A couple years ago in June one day it was raining and in the 50s and I luckily discovered I'd never taken my gloves out of the pockets of my jacket.

I am trying to pack as lightweight as possible so I can buy stuff. Also, I have to drag the suitcase about three blocks to my hotel after the flat along with carrying my laptop and purse.

Eight days!

Got my shoes back from the cobbler and they look gorgeous. Well worth paying the cost of basically a new pair.

Did the Mating Games bonus challenge and voted. Now I just have to write the main challenge. I was going to write something dark but silly smut seems to get the votes or at least the comments. At least I don't seem to have a Fullmoon Ficlet to write because we never got a challenge...

I finally gave in and sprayed the massive ant attack in the kitchen. They come in the back door. :P

Looks like we have higher chances for storms over the next couple nights rather than during the day. I hate that, because I don't sleep well when it's storming.

The store where I buy comics is on that corner where they're mucking up the streets and half the entrances are blocked. I can get in the way I normally do, but I'm going to have to go some long ass way around to get home afterwards. Why the city decided that mucking up two of major intersections in town at the same time is a good idea, I have no clue, though the other one isn't a problem yet unless you want to drive under the intersection as the tunnels are closed.

I caught up on SPN last night, watched the last three eps. Very exciting! I know I'm in the vast minority who enjoys the angel storyline, but Season 4 and the angels is what cemented my love for the show. Before that it was just a show I enjoyed but I wasn't in the fandom and didn't rewatch eps etc. Anyway, I loved this finale. Can't wait to see where it goes next year but I think Dean has been on this path since Season 3.

Survivor ends tonight as well as Revolution (for good, *sigh*) though I need to watch last week's ep of the latter, maybe today after boss leaves. After that, most tv is done. A few newer things like 24 and Madmen and The 100 is still going on for a few more weeks. I decided to give Crossbones a try since I love pirates, so I've got that set up to record while I'm gone. I don't think any other summer shows I watch or am interested in start before I get back from England. Definitely going to catch up on GoT while I'm there.

Dammit, I forgot to look for the missing memory stick. *sigh* I guess I'll run to Office Depot after cat sitting and comic books and get a 16GB one anyway.

Well, should look busy in case boss wanders in before his doctor's appointment...

Got a lot of writing done. I have only five more spots on the Cotton Candy bingo and six on the Trope bingo (though one is in the works). I wrote my first ABO and got a lot of positive response to continue which I probably will once I get some obligations out of the way. I'm not writing heat. I'm not a big fan of the heat inducing love or lust so that the Omega gets all submissive and horny and bonds that way. No, my Omegas just can have Alpha kids and that's why they get mated whether they want to or not. Really, people, I'm going to write something NOT angsty and dubcon? *g* It's also a no-werewolves universe. These are two things I swore never to write.

Remember when I swore never to write MPREG?

*head desk*

I'm still never having anyone pee on anyone.

The Royals won a nailbiter 1-0 on Saturday and then won 8-6 yesterday behind Gordon's two three run homers. It was 8-3 until the top of the 9th when our bullpen failed but then our closer could come in and zip, zip, zip, out.

I slept in on Sunday and skipped church so I could mow the lawn while it was still relatively cool. We had our last Chalice Circle and it was very nice. A long absent member--due to work commitments--returned for the final meeting. We had a small party afterwards.

I'm okay with the winners of TAR. I watched both last week's and the finale last night. I love it when people get lost in England where the roadsigns are in English and everyone speaks English. *g* Also, there was a country house. :)

The guys working on my yard finally showed up today. They're leveling the ground and seeding the area where the blue spruces were and then planting a columnar tree there. This has been "promised" since last Fall. *g* Not complaining--he's dad's garden guy and I'm not paying for it. I'm glad I didn't mow all the weeds there since they were weed whacking them when I left this morning.

Well, I actually have a ton of work to do; going to be so busy before I get out of here for England. Most of my house is at least presentable. I need to clean my kitchen and scrub down the utility room, but the rest is just dusting and vacuuming.

So...to work. While boss is getting his iPhone repaired because it stopped turning on last night and he's lost without it.

OMG how did I not know about this??????



Yes, please, oh yes!

Ravenscar and the girl he damned and angels and hell and blond hair and the trenchcoat!!!!! Okay, it's got some American girl but he was in America a lot in the comics so I'm willing to buy it. If it's as good as the trailer and NBC doesn't fuck it up, it's a fitting replacement for SPN (if SPN actually ends at ten seasons).

I was sold at Ravenscar. Anything's better than the Keanu Reeves travesty (the only thing that made the movie bearable was Tilda Swanson).

In other news NBC cancelled Revolution which I quite enjoyed and CBS Intelligence and The Crazy Ones, ditto. :( Pretty much everything else I watch got renewed or was ending anyway. CW ended Starcrossed but if I had to choose between it and The 100, the latter wins hands down. I have a thing for post apocalyptic worlds. Also angels. Looking forward to Syfy's "Dominion" next month.

Still way behind on tv. I spent a lot of Saturday dozing.

I have to have a colonoscopy but the doctor was fine with putting it off till the end of June. She didn't seem overly concerned and her examination of my stomach didn't reveal any hard spots or anything. The blood is microscopic (I never noticed it) so it's probably a polyp or something simple. They may do an endoscopy, too, since I've had some heartburn, but it can all be done at the same time. I'm not thrilled, especially since I'll have to lose a day of work and all vacay days are allotted, but I am tired all the time so maybe there is something wrong that's easily fixable. Even on the high powered iron pills my iron hemoglobin level dropped from 10.2 in December to 10.1 in March so I am losing blood. Also I'm almost down to the weight I was at last doctor's appointment, so if I'm good I figure I can lose about five more pounds before England and be the lowest I've been since I was on Nutrisystem eight years ago.

The Royals split the series with Seattle. Yesterday was very back and forth. We were up 4-0 thanks to Escobar's early grand slam and then they were up 5-4 and then they were up 7-5 and then we won 9-7. I had to leave for dinner in the top of the 7th when we were down by two and I debated not taping it but I'm glad we did because our second baseman hit a three run homer to put us up for good pretty much right after I left.

Church was our senior bridging ceremony. We had two graduating seniors, one the girl I've worked with on the Spiritual Celebration Team whom I've mentioned before. Each kid is introduced by a non-related adult so our minister asked me to introduce her. I had what I was going to say in my head all Saturday but finally wrote it down Sunday morning. I got a couple compliments on it. Her reflection made me tear up. Her mom, who was introducing the other kid, was crying, too. Well, so was she. The other kid is a musician and most of his reflection was a song he wrote for guitar--no lyrics but he crafts beautiful pieces of music; he did the same for his grandfather's funeral a couple years ago. A young adult who grew up in the church (her aunt grew up there with me--we were talking afterwards and discovered we went to the same experimental kindergarten the same year--we find this out 43 years later????) has a vocal degree and sang "For Good" from Wicked for most of her reflection. The choir sang, too.

It was a very nice service.

I got a bit of writing done but didn't edit or post anything as I got tired again last night after dinner at our favorite Mexican place. They had a new refried bean and cheese burrito so I forwent my usual tacos for it. It was good but I couldn't eat it all and only had a few bites of rice. Mom liked the vase I got her.

I also swapped out all my winter for summer clothes and started choosing things to take on the trip from the winter set--lightweight but long sleeve tops mostly. We're going from London to the Orkneys north of Scotland; God knows what the temperature difference will be like.

Oh, Friday night I went to my dad's retirement party. It was mostly young faculty which was really nice to see because dad's been a mentor to most of them. They gave him an $80 bottle of wine from France and have commissioned a Louis Copt painting. I've been trying to get my parents to buy one of the prairie on fire ones for a couple years so I really hope it's one of those. I usually don't like landscapes but those are just gorgeous.

I didn't get any cleaning done and I need to vacuum and sweep the floors and clean both bathrooms at least before I can get a plumber in. I realized I'll have to clean my bathroom so which ever parent is hanging out while they put in a new toilet in the front bath can have one if they need it. I might start tonight depending on my energy level but Thursday is more likely as I have only two shows on tv that night. I should call the plumber today to see about a Friday appointment.

Oh, in my writing yesterday I managed to write for a prompt I don't have. I thought I had genderswap but I have bodyswap and Alt. gender norms. Brilliant. I've used my Trope Bingo free square already. I'll post it at some point, though.

The fullmoon ficlet prompt this week is Mother's Day which is perfect for a series with two dads; need to get on the Mating Games prompt, too, which is along the lines of werewolf sex like with claws or knots or feralness or all the way to bestiality. I was pretty pleased with my first story and there have been some positive comments which is always nice. There are nine fic winners each week and I never won last year so here's hoping. I need to start reading and voting, too. You get two points for your team for voting in all four categories (one is art).

It's rained enough (though still very little) that the grass is high again already. Not mowing till this weekend, though. Around 6:30 on Saturday night the weather alert went off with a warning of tennis ball sized hail for the northwestern part of our county (where my parents live) and 'go to the lowest level of your house; humans and animals outside will be injured; warning warning warning Will Robinson'. We got nothing, not even a drop of rain. My parents had a tiny bit of rain. I watched the radar the whole time and it was obvious it wasn't going to hit us here and would barely brush them. I dunno if anyone got tennis ball sized hail.

I enjoyed the finale of Once Upon A Time. Caught up on Grimm as well--I like Truble. Still way behind and a full slate tonight.

Well, surprisingly other attorney isn't in yet. Boss actually came in around 3:30 on Friday as they got away early from the Ozark, so he's gone through stuff already and isn't in yet either but I figure my free time here is numbered...

It's been over a week!

*sigh*

And it's not like I've been mega busy. I won't go day by day to spare you.

Some highlights:

One of our seminarians gave his final sermon on Sunday before he goes to an internship in Tennessee. It was on the nature of evil and was wonderful. I convened for him but instead of staying on the stage through the rest of the service, I moved into the congregation so I could get the full effect of his sermon. Several choir members sang Malvina Reynolds "What's Goin' On Down There" about the murders of the Civil Rights activists by the Klan and it was lovely.

The Royals won for the first time ever in San Diego last night.

24 returned. Jack's back! It was a great start. Also a lot (maybe all?) was filmed in London and the surrounds. That was Syon House south of London for the interior of the party.

Resurrection ended on a 'the government sucks' theme which always stirs my blood. I really like this show and hope it gets renewed. Also, SHIELD last night was very good. Bad Ward, bad!

I've written a few things but I need to pick up the pace if I want to finish these bingo cards before vacay.

I was heartily amused last night at the parents'. They have these mission style columns on their front porch and birds build nests on a couple of them every year. This year they built a nest on one--it went from one layer last Friday to fully formed yesterday--but when I left last night, two birds were sitting facing each other on the OTHER column, like they were confused. *g*

Boss is gone this week.

Thanks to my grocery card I saved 80 cents a gallon on gas yesterday.

I got purple fingernails a bit darker than my toes, but close, and now I can wear sandals because it's finally warm. My manicurist has just gotten into Walking Dead so we chatted about that a lot. She loves Daryl too.

My favorite heeled Mary Janes will be repaired by the time I go to England even though the lone leather worker in town is about four weeks behind. He's doing a rush on them, replacing the heel cap that came off and repairing the leather on that heel, then putting a matching cap on the other. It'll cost $50, about what I paid for the shoes a half dozen years ago, but worth it. They're the only heels I've ever been able to walk any distance in--they're so comfortable--and he was amazed at how they've held up and agreed it was worth it to fix them because the shoe is not made anymore and it would be very hard to find anything comparable.

Mating Games started and I'm on Team Hunter this year. About twice as many people are participating than last year. I haven't gotten the first smut challenge (due Friday) started but I wrote an angsty piece of the bonus challenge last night. It was to write or draw about a report that crossed the Sheriff's desk and I wrote about Allison's "murder" report. Have had several nice bits of feedback on it.

The lego episode of the Simpsons was wonderful and adorable.

Some mehlights:

Look, I made up a word.

I had to mow for the first time this past weekend. Blech. On the plus side, I found several mullein in the side yard and mowed around them. If Chatsworth lets them grow everywhere (it's technically a weed), I can bloody do the same.

I started cleaning the house in preparation for vacay. In doing so I discovered I've lost my new PIN for my bank card that I had replaced because I lost it, too. *sigh* Oh well I have to let the bank know I'm going overseas anyway, so I can do both at the same time.

I watched the final four eps of the Following and was like 'um...where's this going next year?'

Apparently we are doing something for Mother's Day. I put his in this category because I'm trying to diet and we're going out to a local Mexican place. I'll just get a taco and some of their fantastic refried beans, I guess, and keep away from the chips and cheese dip. (It's the same place that catered the church auction.)

One of my cat sitting deals in the auction is happening the week before I go on vacay, like right up to the night before. I did it for her last year and if I remember correctly, it was twice a day, so I'll be busy. It's okay and not too far out of my way going home or going to work.

Some lowlights:

Even though boss is gone I've been busy because other attorney has been here, though he's gone now for the rest of the day and may not be in tomorrow so hopefully I can get some stuff watched while I organize and holepunch.

I'm way behind on tv due to watching the Royals.

The Royals blew an opportunity to advance in the standings by losing three to Detroit at home, then losing in extra innings to San Diego in the first game. :P

I heard back from the doctor and I have blood in my stool so I have to go see her this Saturday and probably have to have horrible tests and god knows what, maybe surgery of some kind if there are polyps or a tear somewhere. I'm going to try very hard to put these off until after my vacation. I mean, I'm not going to drop dead from anemia and I haven't noticed any blood so it must be microscopic.

We skipped over Spring and went to Summer. It was already 76 degrees at 8:30 this morning, heading to 90 again as it was yesterday. Sandal wearing is the only plus here.

Even with it 78 degrees in the house when I got home yesterday night when I turned the AC down and put on a tshirt and shorts, I ended up turning on the heating pad while sitting on the couch because I was so damn cold downstairs.

Damn anemia (it's still not going to kill me).

Monday night I managed to spill about twelve ounces of water all over my coffee table and floor. On the coffee table were comic books (a few got wet), my phone (okay), the remotes (okay), my mouse (so very not okay). After an hour or so it started acting up, opening links without me clicking on them and, then suddenly, like twenty firefoxes opened with ALL my hundred open tabs which basically froze everything. I had to turn off the mouse and use the mouse pad to slowly get them all closed down. Mom bought me a new mouse so I had one last night. I hate the pad thing.

Well, I need to get to court before the Royals come on in an hour...

Rain's been rolling through since the middle of the night--thunder woke me up and gave me bizarre dreams after of these people stealing stuff out of my garage but it was all light and jokey and I ended up dating one of them who had two fingers that were broken and crooked and had a female friend who wanted to know where I got my manicure done.

Yeah, IDEK.

It was only sprinkling when I got to work so I left my umbrella in the car--I brought it in yesterday since storms were projected and we got nada, naturally. Hopefully they'll be through by the time I leave as I'm in a maxi skirt which on me is even more maxi and I really don't want to drag it through puddles.

Listening to the Royals and Indians. They have the bases loaded, no outs, and are already up 1-0. *sigh* Maybe we need a squirrel running around on the field--we won that game. Last night my least favorite pitcher gave up the win in the 8th. I don't know why we kept him.

Oh look, 3-0 with no outs. *sigh* I don't know why Chen is starting this year. Last year he played the first half of the season out of the bullpen and the club made a point of that--he doesn't pitch well for several innings until July.

Last night I watched last week's The 100 and this week's. Boy that show is dark. I really like it.

Oh, look, 5-0 now. *head desk*

Not much on tv tonight so I should be able to catch up on tv or maybe write. I wrote a bit yesterday. There's been this idea stuck in my head for awhile, interfering with my ability to write anything else, and I finally started it. I don't know how much time I'll have to write this weekend, as it's busy again. I have bread to bake for church and then a work day at church on Saturday afternoon. Service and Chalice Circle on Sunday with the Royals in between.

Yesterday for no good reason that I could tell my phone and new attorney's started acting up--first people calling in couldn't hear us and then they went off completely, but boss' was fine. My phone and new attorney's are hooked through wireless boxes and the wireless was down as well as the phones until I unplugged and replugged enough that it worked again. At that time the phone itself was still working in that at one point I bypassed the wireless box and plugged it straight into the wall.

Today the whole building has been having issues with the phones--same thing about callers unable to hear--and internet, my boss as well (he is plugged straight into the wall) yet new attorney and I are having no problems! Technology is beyond me sometimes.

Boss and new attorney slogged out through the rain for lunch so I probably should get mine and eat. I have plenty of work to do sadly.

Lots of highs and lows.

I seem to be over my latest cold though I'm still congested and coughing--I think that's due to allergies, though, since I haven't taken Sudafed in over a week. Right now I have a clog in my throat which makes me want to cough and/or barf.

So, over the weekend I went to a regional church conference in Topeka. Our Fellowship was co-sponsoring it and since the choir was singing and dad paid my registration fee, I figured I should go though conferences aren't my "thing". I didn't go to the Friday night stuff, but joined my parents on Saturday. Mom and I attended a couple music workshops, choir practice, and a sing along with the woman (folk singer) who wrote the conference theme song (annzimmerman.com check her out; she also led one of the workshops on song writing at which I had a lot of fun but also wrote a very bad verse to "Froggie Went A Courting" because I suck at song/poem writing). I bought some books. Dad left that night so I stayed in mom's hotel room. Sunday morning we had more choir practice and the worship service during which the choir sang three numbers. Going from a 12-15 person choir to over 45 is amazing. I sang next to a woman who picked up the music two days before and I was so jealous how fast she caught on--months after starting to work on one piece I still struggled.

The whole conference was on social justice issues--there were visits to the Brown v. Board of Ed. site, march on the capital etc.--so the worship service dealt with John Brown and slavery, the Brown v. Board issue, and gay marriage issue. The Manhattan minister spoke on the latter. He's gay and married in California but in a lawsuit here in Kansas because our stupid governor signed an Order that forces gay married couples to file single State tax returns. The other parties in the suit, a lesbian couple from here, made a video in which they pointed out that if they could file a married return, they'd end up paying more state taxes! Stupid governor. Anyway, his reflection, very personal, nearly had me in tears, so naturally we had to sing right after that.

Afterwards, I drove mom home and then headed to my own house for lunch and dozing until Capt. America.

Car handled the highway really well even in the high winds on Sunday, though mostly it was two lane Highway 40. Driving to Topeka, especially downtown on a weekend, is like driving to a ghost town. You're in the middle of nowhere and then go around a curve and, boom, downtown. Hardly any cars on the road--it's I-70 for God's sake, where are the cars??? *snort*

Anyway, we got some rain on Sunday but after I got back into Lawrence, which was good because my car got horribly dusty in the parking lot at the Ramada Inn and just enough sprinkles on it on Saturday night to cake it on in spots.

Quite enjoyed Capt. America even though they didn't touch on Natasha's true history and age and relationship with the Winter Soldier, though there might have been a hint (easter egg?) when she mentioned working for the KGB. If she was born in 1984, she would have been five when the KGB went bye bye, and while she may have been young, that seems a bit much. There were some nice surprises I managed not to be spoiled for.

With the rain came bitter cold and snow. Yes, snow. I woke up Monday to about a 1/2 inch of snow on the deck. :P

Busy at work on Monday and then manicure (pearly blue polish) and then grocery shopping before going home to open the door from the garage to the laundry room to find it raining inside.

The upstairs front bathroom toilet tank cracked and flooded down into the utility room directly below it. There was about 1/2 inch of water on the floor and it was raining down through the light fixtures. I managed to get the groceries to the main level, peeled off my coat and turned off the toilet, then ran back downstairs to grab a plastic bowl to catch the water, some towels to mop it up, before grabbing buckets for the downstairs. The litter box was full of water, the extra litter bag was soaked, the fronts of the washer and dryer were wet etc. The clothes on top of the dryer were amazingly dry though the fluorescent light fixture that was dripping is partially over the dryer. The water had run about two feet into my old bedroom and bathroom; luckily that floor is all stone tile.

I dragged the shop vac from the basement and soaked up what I could. The bathroom upstairs has porcelain tile floor and it seemed okay. It didn't flood out onto the wood floor thankfully.

At some point I fed the cats and put away my groceries. Didn't eat until nearly 8:00. Such fun. The dripping stopped around 9:00 and the floor downstairs was dry by the next morning. I'm afraid to turn on the lights down there, though, since the water came out around the fixtures and along the upper sill of the door into the garage. At the end of the fluorescent light is a large plaster bubble but otherwise the ceiling doesn't look damaged. No plaster bits on the floor, no discoloration.

Thank God it didn't happen while I was gone on the weekend! I figure it was only going for a couple hours at the most.

I'll call a plumber next week to replace the toilet and assess any damage. It's a toilet only guests use and I never have guests so I'm not too fussed as long as the floor doesn't sink or the ceiling cave in. Sadly it's a 44 year old toilet, all porcelain with metal fixtures. Toilets these days come with plastic fixtures that break every five years. Those were original!

Home ownership, yeah.

Luckily I only got one tiny chip in my nail polish during the whole ordeal.

Let's see...Tuesday I watched both last week's SHIELD ep again and this week's. It's getting really good, though I've enjoyed it all along. Also, after a disastrous road trip to Minnesota, the Royals won their first game in Houston. And it's slowly warming up outside into the 60s today.

Choir practice tonight after which I'll have to drive my mom home since she had another vertigo treatment this morning and shouldn't drive for a day. Dad'll take her for the dinner beforehand, but has no reason to stay. So far the treatments aren't working, though today's was easier than last week's. She has one next Thursday and if it doesn't work, she's calling the doctor because obviously there's more wrong than just vertigo. She's got to get this fixed before we go to England or the trip could be a horror.

In happier news, it's apparently secretary's day (or whatever they call it now; I have no problem being called a secretary) and while boss hasn't remembered in like fifteen years (which is fine since I always forget boss day), new guy got me a yellow tulip plant. :) I also spent a good half hour trying and finally succeeding in getting his horrible Win Vista computer hooked up to the internet through our wifi and also keeping his phone on because at one point, only one of the two worked. *snort*

It's really sad when people rely on ME for tech help. Last night dad had me help him scan and attach a document to an email because, while he could scan, he would just save it wherever it would default to and then couldn't find it. I showed him how to change the save location. He also didn't know that when the browse box opened you could change the way you viewed it to show "details" and therefore get the date so he could confirm it was the right document.

He's been using a computer since 1983.

*head desk*

He also just ordered a Win 7 laptop due to the security issues with WinXP. I just know I'm going to have to set the whole thing up for him.

Well, I've been typing this sporadically for like three hours now. Need to get to court and file stuff. Need to write fic that's due Friday. Very busy weekend ahead with church auction (and baking cookies and bread for same) and Easter. I don't think the J2SPN big bang is gonna happen. 20000 words by May 1? Pretty sure that's a big no. Also I kind of stupidly signed up for Mating Games which runs for six weeks, two and a half of them during which I'll be in another country. *face palm* Let's hope I do have internet on the important days to post ficlets and vote.

Signups are open for the Derek/Stiles BB and I'm tempted to sign up as I have 2000 words of a forced mating fic already started that doesn't fit any prompts I have. It won't post until next December or January so plenty of time (hah!). I also have a pre-season 3B Peter/Stiles fic started that would fit for the TW BB if they run that again (as that's what it was for last year and didn't happen). I also hope to participate in Poly BB if they run that again this summer/fall. And I have two bingo cards to get finished before I go on vacay. Oh and there's some kind of rare slash pairing exchange starting over on DW.

Sheesh, overcommit yourself, stupid, and yet fail at the SPN BB. I'm just way more into TW.

Okay, I really, really have to stop typing this...

My eyes are doing that thing where they feel like they weigh too much for my face and just want to sag shut.

I decided not to take sudafed as it just dries up the mucus in my chest/throat and leaves an annoying tickle. I cough but nothing comes up.

Went to the pharmacy and the new pill costs regularly $333 for thirty. I get $150 off thanks to the savings card. Januvia cost about the same but he had me on a savings card for all my pills so it cut about $30 off. So I am saving, but it's still fucking ridiculous. People shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get life saving medication. One of the biggest rip offs in this country is drug companies.

After that I got a pizza from Papa Murphys rather than make stirfry.

I watched the last two eps of Helix. Somehow I didn't realize how short Peter was when he was all nasty and dripping black goo and crawling like a maniac through ducts. *g* Interesting twists there at the end (also Peter in glasses is nummy but is he good or bad and what about the baby and which did they keep, cure or disease?) Anyway, I liked it a lot. Hope it comes back next year or whenever. Also watched the last ep of Intelligence and hope it comes back, too; along with Bitten and Starcrossed (is it just me or do the kids now have free reign of the town? Didn't there used to be guards following them everywhere and they went to school and then back to the sector except for a couple special occasions, always guarded, and now they're off to the swamps and out at night sneaking around etc...)

The Royals, of course, lost. We were leading 3-1 until our starter went out and then Detroit tied and won it in the 9th. :P We've now lost seven opening days in a row. We don't play today; more days game tomorrow and Thursday. I guess they think a night game will be too cold in Detroit at this time of year.

I'm going to parents tonight even if it's just for dinner as dad is making fried rice and he does it so much better than me. I'll try not to breathe on him because I'm probably still contagious. I have no clue what the incubation period is for a cold. Google says about three days after exposure and I started coughing Friday afternoon so I guess I'm not contagious. Still, with dad's lung disease, shouldn't risk it.

I have three tapes here to transcribe from other attorney. Don't wanna. *whine* One's been sitting here for over a week, though. I have to drag the machine out and hook it up and I'm lazy and sick.

Jeez it's nearly ten. Where's the morning gone?

It's been a very exciting week. Dayton won again--go Cinderella Flyers! I finished my application for my home equity line of credit and have spoken with the banker with mostly positive results (income level is just on the edge but dad can cosign). A skirt I haven't worn for a while because it was tight around the waist fits!

And I got a new car.

I went into the Ford/Mazda dealership after work yesterday to discuss my options of buying my current car (nope, payments would be about $50 more a month) or leasing a new one. I looked at the 2015 Mazda 6 and they had a black one but it was about $28k and had things I frankly don't need to make it that expensive--moonroof, sirius radio. I looked at one 2014 Ford Fusion for about $23K and that was it. It's red with black and gray inside. My Mazda was red with black and gray inside. So very much my colors! I test drove it, took it out on the highway in the high winds. It felt very much like the Mazda, very comfortable. Held the road very well.

So I leased it. *g* Paying about $15 more a month than the Mazda and dad's paying my downpayment. Oh, because I've been a customer for a couple decades (and I'm sure because my parents just leased a loaded Lincoln from them) they let me walk out of there without paying anything! Mom just dropped off the check for me to take over after work along with the spare key.

I was not prepared to do this at all! My trunk was full of crap, for one thing. lolol The car was dirty (which was actually a good thing because they didn't notice the small scratch from a tree branch).

New things on the car. I have sync! The dealer set up my phone and the first thing I did when driving home was call mom. "Call Mom and Dad". Heh. It has blind spot mirrors within the side mirrors. Not only does it tell me the outside temp but also what direction I'm driving and how many miles I have till I have to fill the gas tank. The gas tank is one of those capless ones. And the radio tells me what song is playing (useful as I suck at that). It has running lights. That's all I've discovered so far. I need to take the manual in tonight and go through it. Oh, and I turned on the heat this morning and it was warm immediately. Oh, and faux leather seats over cloth--first time ever for me! They're a light gray so shouldn't heat up too badly in the summer.

Anyway, very excited over my pretty. They've already taken it off the website so I can't show it to you, but it's ruby red. :)

So, tonight, before going to my parents', I have to drop off documentation to the bank, drop off the check and other key to the Mazda at Ford, go to the post office, the work bank for deposits, but I don't need to get gas! My savings points that end on March 31 will lapse but I saved $50 by not filling the tank of the Mazda the other day--I was waiting till tonight on the way to my parents'--because they gave me a full tank of gas on the Ford. It does get a little worse MPG than the Mazda but I don't drive it anywhere. The dealer was amazed that the Mazda after two years and ten months only had 13,900 miles on it. I had an annual 12,000 mile allowance. LOLOL I have 10,500 on the Ford. 12K used to be as low as they'd go.

Okay, enough babbling. Boss is at court but I have a butt load of work to do. Day started with a trip to Office Depot because our toner ran out late yesterday.

No, really, there was snow on the banister outside yesterday morning after a warm Saturday of lightweight t-shirt wearing. Stupid ass weather. Spring Equinox service with snow on the ground. Luckily we didn't plan a ritual outside like we had a couple years ago as it was about 35 degrees with blustery wind.

So, KU sucked and lost Friday night to Iowa State, thus losing our #1 seed and dropping to the lowest of the #2 seeds. More on that later.

Slept in on Saturday but got my bread baked to take out to church. We had a special choir practice that afternoon working on the piece for this coming Sunday with our soloist. Then we set up the altar. I ran to the grocery, then watched basketball and read fanfic. Wrote nothing.

Sunday morning I threw together the ritual and went to church to discover that one of our readers/direction callers was home with a sick baby, so, as I had to rehearse the choir number I'd only sung once due to so many missed rehearsals, I threw the finding of people to our convener who roped in people, yay. Basically pulled the service out of our asses, but it was fine. We all mentioned the snow and got laughs. I didn't have the greatest voice but did manage to sing.

Watched more basketball and napped Sunday afternoon. Woke up in time for the selection show. We got seeded just where the latest projection had us: #2 in the South with Florida as #1. Surprisingly Michigan fell to #2 since they lost their tournie championship and Virginia got the fourth #1 seed that was up for grabs. Also surprising is the big name teams in the play in games, like Tennessee, Iowa and NC State. Usually these are lesser teams from mid-range conferences. So they'll be interesting games to watch. I'll have choir practice on Wed. but should get home to see most of the Iowa/NC State game.

Despite Jay Bilas predicting us into the Final Four (love you Jay but you're delusional) KU has a tough row to hoe. We should get past our first round opponent but then we'll probably face New Mexico. We beat them earlier in the year but that was Embiid's best game. NM has two big guys. We showed against ISU that we can't stop big guys driving to the basket with layups and dunks without Embiid. *sigh* So, rooting for Stanford to take out NM in the first round. I'd like to get to the Sweet 16 but I doubt we'll get any farther and I'm not convinced we'll get that far.

I'll be rooting for the other six Big 12 teams, though. Big 12 got the most 7/10!

Need to do my brackets. None of them will have KU winning it all. It's just not going to happen.

Of course there was always the miracle of 1988...

Got caught up on a bit of tv last night, too. Was very impressed with the Cowboys on TAR--I had it muted and was trying not to watch as it recorded and thought they used their express pass. Walking Dead--Jesus. Gutwrenching. Give someone an Emmy for this episode--actress who plays Carol, actress who plays Lizzie, someone. I continue to be highly amused by the lighthearted music on Helix. Rewatched last week's TW to gear up for tonight's. Seasons of shows with shorter seasons anyway are starting to wrap up: Walking Dead, Teen Wolf, Pretty Little Liars, Intelligence, Helix.

St. Patrick's Day today. I'm wearing green plus my green fingernails but don't plan to do anything special. Boss headed well away from downtown for an early lunch as it's already jam-packed down here. Doesn't help that it's Spring Break so all the kids are out of school.

Well, since I'm taking staycation Thursday and Friday I have a lot of work to do...

Despite coughing all day yesterday, mostly due to a tickle in my throat, I think I'm nearly over this crap. Still coughing a bit, but nothing really coming up--feels like normal sinus drainage which I have all the time. I'm going to my parents' for the first time since I caught the cold. Haven't seen them in two weeks except for about a minute at their car when they dropped some stuff off last week. Feels weird.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping in 76 degree weather. Last Monday I had my manicure so I couldn't wear gloves when I went shopping and my hands froze--it was like 30 degrees I think. 78 today.

Chance for snow showers overnight.

Yeah, I'm so over this shit.

78 is too warm. The rest of the week, after 40s tomorrow, should be in the 60s which is much better. Not that my house is at all warm. I keep it locked up, blinds pulled, 24/7, so I still had the heating pad on last night and it was 63 in the house when I got up this morning. It'll take a while to warm up and need the AC.

Sidenote: I think there's something in the basement of this 150 year old building that's making me cough. Probably the original sandstone I'm sitting two feet from. *sigh*

So, TV last night, pretty much excellent. I'm still enjoying Star Crossed but really, really looking forward to the very dark The 100 which starts next week. Also enjoyed the first ep of Resurrection. Watched last week's Helix with the reveal. I figured aliens so was wrong there. The preview annoyed me with its spoiler for a survival. Bitten continues to be enjoyable enough but now I remember what irked me about the werewolves in the books so much--the whole idea that women are too weak to become them and also shouldn't be allowed to raise their male werewolf babies. For a series about WOMEN these two things are pretty misogynistic. Of course Teen Wolf rocked majorly. Peter. :) Peter's presence always makes me happy. He actually showed true concern for Lydia, too. Also really loved the aftershow with the two Hales. Ian discussing having to be shirtless next to Tyler H. was pretty funny. He's got a great bod, though.

I fell a bit behind on tv watching as I was reading this really great, very long Peter/Stiles fic.

SHIELD with Lady Sif tonight. :)

Also, Originals but no SPN, weird. Though in two weeks it's the other way around.

Well, KU is either screwed or will rally around the injured Embiid. He's out for the Big 12 tournie and probably the first weekend of the NCAA tournie so we'll be lucky to win any games. If Black can stay out of foul trouble (ala the Texas Tech game which was his best of the year and not the WV game during which he got his first foul on the first play) we have a chance. I dunno about this team. Even if we get a number one seed I doubt I'll have them making it out of the Sweet 16 in any of my brackets. Reality over loyalty, I guess.

We play the first game of the Big 12 Thursday at 2:00. Yeah, I'm thrilled. I can watch it at work--boss is fine with that as he'll be doing the same--but I still have to deal with the phone and people coming in. This is why I'm taking the first two days of the NCAA tournie off work; even if KU plays in the evening, I don't like the interruptions to my basketball watching.

Okay, lots of work to do...

After a extremely slow beginning to last week, suddenly by Thursday I was dumped on. New guy gave me four dictation tapes (with only one thing on each--I hinted that he could put more than one thing on a tape for the future) and there are several other things I didn't get to last Friday.

So, of course I'm doing this while boss is out. *g*

I think I'm finally on the mend. Still coughing a bit but nothing more than sinus drainage into my throat.

I did nothing all weekend--blew off two meetings yesterday to stay home and rest. I did manage some laundry and the dishes. Go me. Oh, and I got some writing done. I wrote my Purim ficlets and found accompanying graphics, one of them actually a picture I took. I went from the picture image to the ficlet rather than the other way around and that worked well to guide the stories. :)

I failed miserably at the fullmoon ficlet. We even had an extra day! I just totally forgot until like 11:00 p.m. Saturday.

Oh, also managed to miss the time change. Luckily I was already not going to church (though I was up in plenty of time).

I caught up on a lot of tv. I'm enjoying Walking Dead this year but it's weird to not see everyone every episode. Plenty of Daryl though. He and Beth are so adorable together. I have last weeks Following, Revolution (which was pre-empted for basketball and never aired, unlike this week's which will air at like one in the morning), OUAT (hopefully someone will do the naughty) and last week's Helix. So, not bad. Of course I have like eight hours of tv tonight. Monday is ridiculous.

I can't believe there are only three more Teen Wolf eps. I'm so not happy that next season is cut back to half the number of eps again. :P

I caved to myself and posted my new WIP. *sigh* I'm so fucking weak. I did start the next chapter of Giving Over. I wish I could get into some kind of writing routine instead of doing it in spurts.

KU sucked and lost at WVU on Saturday. I mean, big time sucking. Down by 25 at one point. Wiggins scored 41 trying to drag them back, but we only got within ten in the last few minutes. Heroic effort, though. Tharpe, our PG and weak link, did nothing. When he does nothing, we lose. Does not bode well for the tournies. But, other ranked teams, including Virginia, lost as well. It's been an interesting season all around.

We're so far behind on planning this Sunday's Equinox service it's not even funny.

I need to figure out how to get the Veronica Mars movie this weekend. Highly doubt it'll ever come here. It's on digital download, but from where? My On Demand on tv sucks ass which is why I do the naughty so much.

Well, should start tackling the work...

Both the temp--we're supposed to get fucking snow this afternoon!--and my chest cold.

I felt pretty good Monday but I'm draggy again and my eyes are watering, ears and throat ache, coughing up a lung still. Blech. No temperature, though, and it's all just sinus drainage making the throat and ears hurt. Unfortunately that upsets my tummy, too, and I'm still having problems there, too. Just tired of being sick. It's been a week.

Dad finally went to the doctor--his lung specialist. He told her he'd been trying to "tough it out". She told him he was the last person who should be trying to do that (he has lung disease) and the cold was now bronchitis. Idiot. So he's on a Zpac and they've upped his steroids again. Hopefully he's able to sleep in the bed--he's been sleeping in the recliner.

Work has been slow this week. It'll pick up as I have 24 payment letters to draft Friday, double the usual. I did get a spurt of ficcing done yesterday when boss went home early to work on his taxes.

Today I have my pedicure. Monday I got my nails done--glittery green for St. Patrick's Day. :) A base of a matte jade and then glitter on top with three shades of green so, depending on the light, the color changes. It's kind of olive in my office with no natural light but brighter in sunlight.

I managed to get the stupid sidewalks cleared of snow enough that I shouldn't get fined, just in time for new snow though it's supposed to be too warm to stick. It's supposed to be 58 on Friday, which is practically 60. About time. My gas and water bills (from having to run it 24/7 in the kitchen sink) were horrific this past month.

Monday's TW was good, interesting back story, much more looking forward to next week, though, when we get back to the present and the nogitsune and BAMF Sheriff being BAMF.

I was very confused by SHIELD until I read tvguide.com article with some suppositions from readers. I'm just glad Phil didn't find himself. I keep expecting him to be a LMD. It would be an interesting direction to take Skye, if the one reader is right.

SPN was both amusing and sad. I wondered if we'd actually get Sebastian back on Originals. I like Star Crossed but really looking forward to The 100 in two weeks. Very nice ending for Almost Human, so if it doesn't come back, I'm satisfied enough.

Some more bball upsets last night. Geez, Syracuse, what the hell is wrong with you? Sadly Kentucky did not lose. KU plays at home against Texas Tech tonight. Senior Night, we haven't lost one of those in...I dunno, ever? I still plan to go to choir so I'll tape it, despite not having much of a voice and still coughing a lot. I've missed like the last two rehearsals.

I was hoping someone would do the naughty on Castle by now so I could watch it while boss is at lunch on the other side of town, but no luck yet.

So might try writing some more.

Oh the appraisal for my house went up a $1000 this year which means it's only plummeted $21K since a high of about five years ago. :P

Well, not really, just feel like the walking dead.

I stupidly left my thermometer at work yesterday but I'm pretty sure the fever hit last night. I did get the two stories posted that were due today so if I don't get the other one done, that's okay as there's no penalty on that one. Right now I have a bit more energy but I did yesterday late morning as well--I think the motrin and sudafed kick in. Also stupidly forgot to bring more sudafed to work.

Anyway, woke up in the middle of the night cold but not shivering so put a sweater on over my flannel pjs and managed to sleep off and on. Have a headache from stuffed up head. Coughing razor blades. Fever again. I wore my heaviest sweater to work thinking I'd get the chills. Nope, opposite, I've been hot all morning. Low grade fever of 98.8 (for me that's at least one degree).

Blech.

I also have very little voice so answering the phone is fun. I'm going to try to tough it out at work all day but we'll see. Yesterday I started feeling draggy again around 2:30. Nothing sounds good to eat. Last night I got a tub of KFC mashed potatoes for dinner. I hardly ate anything yesterday so really didn't worry about the calories in that. Mom is buying me some soup, cheese, eggs, sugar free cough drops, and other necessities especially if the following happens and I'm stuck at home for several days.

I'm not looking forward to the weekend as we have a projection of freezing rain Saturday turning to snow and up to nine inches by Sunday morning. Or two inches. No one knows. Let's pray for the lesser amount because, sick as I am, snowblowing in 15 degree weather and nine inches of snow is not going to be fun.

Also, KU is probably going to lose at OSU tomorrow night. It's our only ESPN Game Day. It's just wrong that there's not a Game Day at Allen Fieldhouse every year. Some good basketball last night, though. Always a good thing when Kentucky loses at home. :) And Indiana held on and beat Iowa. Plus top ten team St. Louis lost to some school with a horrible record.

I'm not counting on going to church on Sunday either because of no voice or too much snow. I don't know the song the choir is singing due to missing two choir rehearsals in a row so I'm hoping church is cancelled for snow, but then that means snow. Blech.

It's March, dammit!

Well, should get back to work while I have energy.

They decided to get a hotel room at the airport tonight in case we get dumped on with snow overnight (right now it's supposed to be less than an inch by dawn but then start the dumping of anywhere from four to ten inches) so he was only in the office about three hours. Yay!

I got everything done, a few pre-emptive things, and the court stuff is ready to go. Now I just have to bundle up and head over there, then file, and I'm done for the day.

I've been wanting to write a 'Stiles goes to Peter for help/killing him after the last ep' fic and I've started that. I'd like to get it done and posted before the new ep airs tonight.

Hopefully the grocery after work won't be overrun with people stocking up on toilet paper and bottled water. I need, y'know, actual groceries.

Dunno if I'll make it to work tomorrow or, if I do, how long I'll stay. Of course, we may get nothing or a dusting. You just never know. So, I'll talk to you tomorrow and let you know if Joy the snowblower is in use. *g*

Gah, I so want to write a Stiles/Peter tag to last night's Teen Wolf but I have got to finish the TW reversebb! Gah!

There have already been a couple wonderful tags to the big reveal.

Love the big reveal.

Didn't love no Peter. Did love Derek being pissed off.

In other news, they did swap out my trashcan. No clue why they did it in the first place but I better not get charged for the four days I had it.

I turned off the water in the kitchen sink for the day as it's supposed to hit 20 by noon and climb to mid twenties. I'm a bit worried about tonight as by 7:00 it's supposed to be back under 20 and I'm at my parents' until 9:30 or so. Probably will leave early which will give me more time to watch Originals and SPN.

I watched the first two Lost Girls. Might have been a good idea to review what happened last season as I was a bit lost. *g* I also did not realize that Bitten is based on the Kelley Armstrong book! I've actually read that one, though I was more into the witches and vampires than the werewolves and only read the first three or so in the series. I have all three eps on my DVR now. :)

I actually got spam feedback on AO3! What's weirder is that I didn't get comment notifications for them. Two on the same story. Very weird. They both were posted yesterday and I found them yesterday so maybe I deleted them as spam before the notifications went out. Sometimes there's a lag.

I need to order more mulch pills. I don't know if they're working or not. I'm still cold and tired all the time. :P Last night I fell asleep during the first half of the OU/OSU game and woke up to the Sheriff (muted) trying not to laugh at Stiles and Agent McCall.

Just signed up to assist with the Easter service. I've managed to be sick the last two (or lazy, can't rightly remember, no I'm pretty sure at least last year I was sick). With our minister doing three services a month now and our two seminarians doing several and helping out a lot, the rest of the team has gotten pretty lazy about assisting but both seminarians won't be around next year--we lose one to an internship in Tennessee. Which means we lose his boyfriend who likes to do readings, as well. :( So, we'll need to step it up--also need to find new team members, never an easy thing, especially where males are concerned.

My internet is suddenly running very slowly...Like, dial up slowly. :P No clue, man.

Well, though boss won't be in until noonish, I probably should do some work.

Started at 3, might reach 18. Of course by Sunday it's supposed to be 60 again.

No wonder I'm sniffling all the time and my bones ache.

Have to drip the water all day today but tomorrow, though starting off around 8, should reach 40.

Better than the east coast, though. At least we have no snow.

Been busy at work this shortened week. Had to get all the accounting ready to go to the accountant for end of the year taxes. Just got all that back along with my W2. 10% of my wages go to some form of taxes which the government uses stupidly, especially in Kansas. The head justice of the KS Supreme Court pointed out yesterday that come July 1 the courts will be underfunded again by $8.25 million so there will be furloughs and court closures again. :P

Oh, but the legislators have so many more important things to do, like perform an ultrasound on a pregnant woman in a committee meeting. *rolls eyes*

Nowhere near caught up on tv, but have watched and loved the Sleepy Hollow finale and, damn, we have to wait until September??? This is like Mad Men or GoT or Teen Wolf before this year. I hate these short seasons!

Teen Wolf was an okay episode. Peter was in it, so that was good. I do not like Lydia with Aiden.

I did enjoy SPN a lot. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the Sam & Cas interactions. I've also loved for many years the fan theory that the Winchesters are descendants of Abel and the Campbells of Cain. May have to incorporate that into a fic.

Looking forward to Vampire Diaries tonight.

I have dark blue polish on my nails. I figure when spring comes I'll lighten it up. She has lots of blues/teals.

Everytime after I turn over our accounting to the accountant, I have to restore our Quickbooks data and it always makes me nervous that it won't do it right.

It did it right, of course.

Yesterday I was filing things with the court and the counter lady has been there about two years. When someone pays off on a judgment we file a one page document called a Satisfaction of Judgment. It doesn't need to be signed by a judge or forwarded to the defendant through the court. It goes straight in the court file. So I filed one and handed her another and she looked at it, looked at me, and said something like 'I need to confirm that there's no payment for this'.

What?

I mean, WHAT?????

I'm not paying you a stupid surcharge to stamp a document and stick it in a file! It doesn't get any more processed than that. Also, you've been doing this job for two years. Probably thousands of Satisfactions have been handled by you. You brain fart on this now?? Yeah, there are stupid surcharges for several documents, but not this one, never has been. And, anyway, new surcharges only go into effect on July 1. It's January.

After giving her a WTF look and saying something like 'we never have had to before' she unbrain farted.

Unfortunately woman who knows what she's doing has moved to another position off the counter.

Choir went well; working on three numbers for the Love Service on the 9th. I'm singing Adele's version of Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love' and Amy was very excited to accompany. This will be three Adele songs I've sung with her accompanying.

Well, need to work on the monthly invoices and do a buttload of other stuff.

Pooh. Before the deadline, my name popped up on the Yuletide pinch hit list. It got claimed, but it's still sad it went that long. I guess the person just couldn't get it done/didn't get inspired and waited as long as they could trying. At least the person hit "default".

Lots of pinch hits from those who didn't hit "default" showed up before I even got to my phone this morning, but nothing that tempted me. I really don't have time because I have to do the monthly billing at work today, go to church and the grocery after work, and then clean the house tonight while watching the last football game in Candlestick Park, apparently. The waffle batter has to be made the night before so I'll do that after Service tomorrow night, so the kitchen has to be clean tonight. Though I do have tomorrow afternoon since I'm only working half day (not exactly sure what I'm going to do, I guess do the closed files, hole punch the bills, as, for one thing, our bank closes at noon, so no deposits, and chances are the mail won't get here until after I leave) but I'd prefer not to clean, maybe write.

Also have three things to wrap and hopefully a couple more will be waiting. One thing I should do tomorrow afternoon (not today, high of fifteen, no fucking way) is shovel off my steps so parents can come in that way. It's supposed to be minus three tonight. BRRRRRR I started the hot water running in the kitchen sink before going out last night and won't stop it until I get home tomorrow (well, except when I'm cleaning the kitchen and using the sink).

They plowed around 1:30 this morning but I got out with no problem. Again, would have frozen in place if I had to shovel out the end of the driveway.

The city streets were actually in pretty good condition last night. They sprayed this chemical gunk before the snow and I think that helped melt it much better than salt/sand. On the other hand, the federal highway (40) sucked. I took it rather than attempt the two large hills on the state road to my parents' and the curves and lower hills were patchy snow/ice. When I got to the county road to my parents' it was perfect. So had been the state road, which I took home.

Plow guy did not get their driveway done but dad drove the truck up and down several times. He should have come and gotten the snowblower, he could have at least done the concrete pad and the sidewalk. Of course I wore my higher heeled black boots thinking it was done.

But everyone got in and out okay, including the adorable 90 year old English woman, the mother of one of my former professors. They've been coming to dinner for years but couldn't make it last year so my parents invited a married couple of colleagues about my age. I enjoyed chatting with them a lot; so they were invited again. She made a bouche noel--OMG so good. So sugary. *g*

Dinner was very good. The roast beast was probably overcooked for some but I like my meat with no pink. I probably shouldn't have had the second Yorkshire pudding but they're so good. Otherwise I was pretty good--about four roasted potatoes, a small scoop of peas and one of brussel sprouts, a small piece of meat, the salmon starter, two cookies, two crackers with Stilton, and the cake. I had my glass of sherry to start with. Very full, though. I'm not used to eating that much.

It was a very nice evening. Got home around ten and watched some of the Bears suck even more than the Chiefs before falling asleep on the couch to be awakened by the plow.

Mom went to the chiropractor this morning and he thinks her vertigo problem is actually a pinched nerve; when it pinches, the blood flow to the brain lessens making the blood pressure shoot up. With true vertigo--the crystals in her ears out of line--she should be nauseous and she's not. So she had a treatment this morning and goes back this afternoon. Fingers crossed this works.

Well, need to file and then start the bills. No clue when boss will be in. He has a lunch with a friend and that's it.

snow anywhere from three to ten inches.

*spits*

Too fucking early in the year. It's the first day of winter!

So, went out to church this morning to set up the altar, though if we get ten inches of snow over night, highly unlikely church will happen. Then I stopped and got gas for the snowblower, after checking to see that oil was provided, which meant hacking the huge box open with a box cutter. (Which I actually own--or mom left it behind, whatever).

Got home and got laundry going just in time for KU/Georgetown. God it was good to be home. Okay, GT went up by six early on, but after about halfway through the first half we started getting them in foul trouble and they stopped hitting everything in sight. Our big guy (Black) had his first really good game--usually he gets two quick fouls and sits for most of the game--our point guard (Tharpe) kept it together and hit some great shots. If we hadn't put our scrubs in with three minutes left, we would have won by thirty. Won by twenty-two. Also, Jay Bilas, my favorite announcer, was on. He understands the game and the players so well.

Yesterday I started two of my Yuletide fics. Oh, I overslept and there were pinch hits already out. So far none have tempted me. So, after the game, I finished one of the fics and worked on the second--actually had to check the source material.

Then the snow possibility went from three to five inches to six to eight and I decided I probably should put the damn machine together.

The handle and chute took about ten minutes. Putting the oil in was a hassle as it's in a stupid spot and you have to tip the machine forward--spilled oil on my hands. Adjusting the control cable on a spring took over thirty minutes. Finally I did it all wrong and it worked. This is why I don't read manuals. My fingers hurt; luckily I didn't fuck up my manicure. No clue if the thing actually works, but I've read the "how to use it" instructions.

During all that I missed K-State beating ranked Gonzaga. K-State that has pretty much sucked so far this year. Baffling. Belmont gave Kentucky a scare. Yay. Currently Illinois is beating Mizzu by four at the half. Yay.

So, I'm feeling pretty good about my Yuletide fics which is why I'm doing this. I still plan to get them done tonight because, I put my snowblower together. That means there's a chance we'll get little to no snow. We do have sleeting/freezing drizzle out there so I'm not sliding my way to the mailbox. I'll see if there are any packages outside again in an hour or so. Brother sent me an email from Amazon saying that a couple things were delayed a day or two due to a storm. I did get two things yesterday which I need to wrap.

Hopefully we won't get much snow and church will still happen (so I also need to type up the rest of the ritual) and dinner will still happen. But, who knows, I might be home all day tomorrow and therefore can clean my house instead of doing it Monday night.

Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Hee, Davidson is beating North Carolina. Hee.

My thumb hurts from screwing stuff in. :(

Oh, I won a SunnyD award--best song fic for "Night & Day", a Spike/Dru romance piece. I'm always amazed that people still read stuff I wrote a dozen years ago.

I need to upload my fullmoon ficlet to AO3--no angst, humor, no clue where my brain was.

I got a better bonus than last year. Between 1/4 and 1/3 of it taken for taxes but still enough to pay church pledge. And my boss got some weird idea to put me on the letterhead as office manager with initials after my name. He has JD, I have BA & MLS. I have no clue.

This is all over the place and I'm hungry. I really want a huge piece of cake or something decadent after putting that thing together. I am not made to put things together. I'm happy to pay people to put things together for me (smiles at lovely flat screen tv on lovely chrome and smoked glass stand.)

Speaking of the stand, Elektra misses sleeping on the damn DVR. The picture thing I had on it was heavy and big enough for her not to be able to move. The snowmen were easily pushed aside and I found her up there a couple times. It's now on the second shelf. She crawled her way on top of the DVR this morning.

And finally, I watched Prometheus last night. I am completely confused. Though I was right about it having something to do with Alien.

I just sent another 'i'll take this one' claim to a yuletide pinch hit. God, stop me someone!!!! I haven't started my assignment yet! I keep writing sad, depressing Stiles/Peter fics. Yes, I'm making progress on my hurt/comfort bingo card, but that's not due till December 31st.

Yuletide's due Sunday, dudes!

GAH!

And Sunday is basically shot. Between Solstice, Chiefs and family dinner, I might have about ninety minutes to write.

GAH!

Have not received confirmation yet so maybe I didn't get it... ETA still have not received confirmation so probably didn't get it.

Did talk to brother this morning. I have no idea why he always calls me on my work phone from his work phone. Anyway, he told me what he's sent for mom and dad. I got a couple things yesterday and might have more waiting today. He just ordered some stuff from Amazon today for dad so that should come by Saturday.

I hit up World Market for a gold or yellow candle for Solstice. No dice. Silver, orange, no gold or yellow. I ended up with half price wrapping paper and tissue (I am actually almost out of tissue; did not need wrapping paper but I noticed a distinct lack of red in my collection and I like to wrap everything in different paper--yes, I'm weird--and balance the colors; I have a lot of blue). So I trotted two doors down to Michael's and got two more rolls of wrapping paper which I didn't need and a gold candle with glitter on it! And a gold tray to put it one. I also got a silver glitter candle and silver leaf ring thing to go around it it for my house which is very silver, black and white for Christmas because, again, I'm weird. Remember last week when I couldn't find anywhere that sold the leafy things that go around candles?

Should have gone to Michael's.

What was amazing was that everything was way marked down apparently with no signs telling me that. The candles and the tray were around $10 a piece. I got everything for under $14.

Choir was small but went well last night. We're singing songs we've sung before for Solstice and Christmas Eve. And Christmas Eve service is coming together. The other Worship Associate grabbed people at dinner last night to recruit them to read. *g* I hate recruiting, so yay.

Just heard back about Solstice finally from the person who I really needed to hear from, and we have a second reader. Still need a chalice lighter and a third reader as her husband is reluctant, but dad can always fill in. So I should be able to draft a pretty complete Order of Service in the morning.

Now let's hope we don't get six inches of snow on Sunday. That was the original forecast but now it's like freezing rain tomorrow night into Saturday (which sucks) and then we're down to 20% chance of snow. Now there's a slim chance for snow on Christmas Day. Whatevs. The weather people suck. They can't get anything right.

After work today I head to the other side of town to drop off goodies and then tonight I really have to write (after distributing packages under the tree as mom is supposed to be dropping them off at my house since she was wobbly yesterday and didn't go to choir and drop them off then). No NFL tonight. I guess I'll put on the Duke/UCLA game. Texas beat North Carolina on Carolina's home floor, yay! I did tape and watch it after choir. Well, had it on while wrapping. Oh and I do have new tv tonight--White Collar.

The hit counts are really dropping on my Peter/Stiles stories. Not sure why. But the comments in proportion to hits are going up, especially on the abortion story which has a comment for every one hundred hits. All positive, thankfully.

I've gotta do something about this itchy, dry skin elbow, start using lotion or something. It's been driving me nuts for weeks. Thankfully I have rounded fingernails or I'd be clawing my skin off.

Dar got the kids' prezzies, yay! I have one more package to send for Wishlist--need to go to the basement and find some old cassette tapes and then test them. Should do that tonight, too. I hate the basement.

Brother and nephew will not be coming to meatloaf dinner and KU game on the 30th as one of nephew's Christmas presents is tickets to the game. But I'll get to spend time with them (they're only here two days) as I'm not working. I'll probably go over to the parents' after my doctor's appointment on the 30th and spend the afternoon there until I have to head home and make meatloaf.

I love meatloaf. Well, I love our family meatloaf which actually combines the two in the old gold Better Homes & Garden cookbook from the 1960s. I really don't like any other meatloaf.

Boss is at court this morning. I have pretty much nothing to do, though I need to file away the piles of closed files so that his son can then rotate them out of file drawers into boxes. We only keep about the last six years here.

Probably should do something productive...

KU stunk...I'm sorry, they went on a 21-0 run? Stunk.

But then we did try to come back and the refs completely fucked us over with the non-call on Wiggins and giving the ball to Florida. We would have been within two possibly without that.

I still can't figure out how we got 40 rebounds. Except for a few (Ellis clutching the ball with both hands to his stomach) that I can remember, mostly I have burned into my brain the image of balls bouncing off our guys' finger tips and, worse, our guys fighting for the same rebounds and losing them, like baseball players all going for the same fly ball and running into each other.

And we don't even really come home for Saturday's game against New Mexico--its in Kansas City.

*sigh*

They do not play like a team--we had sixteen turnovers in the first half. Our point guards are either useless, brilliant or completely inconsistent. We can't play against a zone. Our defense, also a hallmark of Self's teams, sucks, but I partly blame the new rules for that one.

I do believe it will come together--Duke didn't completely suck; we did legitimately beat them--but this is painful.

I spent most of the game (after the brilliant first 15 minutes) reading off comments to dad from the phog.net message board.

Where I have a new name. A comment I made got quoted and I was referred to, in the positive, as ladynoob. *g*

I don't know how dad can keep quiet and never comment. I just can't do that.

After the debacle, I went home and wrapped most of the presents I have until I ran out 1) tape and 2) boxes. For some reason, after Christmas last year, I only bought blanket sized boxes. Dad bought more three tops so I need shirt sized boxes. I stole tape from work...

I DO not need any more wrapping paper, bows, tags. Do not let me go to Target this year after Christmas.

I have my pedicure today, quick dinner, and then race to church for a meeting, so no time to hit the store, though I could go afterwards. I need bananas and eggs thanks to the stupid storm in Texas delaying delivery to Target.

So, tonight, finish wrapping, bow and decorate packages.

Tomorrow night after quick shopping at one store downtown, dad's coming over to move the print that's hanging over where the tv is going to go since it's too low. Then I have to write. I really have to write.

Last night I started watching SHIELD around midnight and paused it for a short nap about half way through and the next thing I knew it was 4:37 in the morning. *sigh* So while I went to bed for three more hours, I'm tired, because I kept half-waking up freezing cold on the couch.

Apparently there are three more eps of Sleepy Hollow. I didn't look deep enough into the wiki page.

I've printed off all the addresses for cards. I need to do some research on Winter Solstice rituals. I should draft this confusing Motion and Order. Wonder if the mail is here?

But not a Ho...

Anyway...

Still coughing up crap but feeling pretty good. I'm wearing my new pretty gray cardigan over a black skirt I haven't been able to wear for a couple years, though I could only find one of my gray sweater knit flats so I'm in my usual black heeled mary janes. Need to dig through the shoe pit...

KU continues to get screwed around with on tv coverage depending. Now, I get everything, but y'know that Time Warner Cable has the rights to six basketball games and while my cable company made a deal, others including the dish companies didn't. Now the game tomorrow is on some bizarre music channel co-owned apparently by Ryan Seacrest called AXS. I get that. Dish gets that. Time Warner Cable doesn't. *snort* But, if we win, the next two games are on nbssports.com I get that. Dish gets that...but, wait, only if you have their highest priced package (which I'm pretty sure my parents' have, but my boss doesn't as I just chatted with his wife about where the games might be). I also get BTN (the Big 10 Network) but my parents don't--Dish has it but only in states that have a Big 10 school. They do get cbssports which I don't. It's all very nuts. For the last twenty years or so every KU game has been available to every tv set in Kansas.

I'd be really ticked if I didn't get nbssports because that's where Le Tour is on.

In other news, I was taking credit card info from a client over the phone when boss' wife called so it rang through to him and he didn't even recognize her voice when she said she'd call back to talk to me. *snort* She has a very distinctive voice. Of course, he does need hearing aids.

Mom drove today for the first time since last Wednesday and no problems. So we're still hitting the stores on Friday. I have several errands to run after work today and then I really have to clean my main rooms. I'll leave the kitchen until after I bake pie and pumpkin bread with the leftover pumpkin. Also need to find that shoe. I did spend some time last night going through all my clothes and putting away the summer stuff and replacing it with the winter stuff. Which is how I found this skirt. Also went through a box of vintage jewelry I'd originally purchased at garage sales for reselling, and took out stuff I like to keep. I could have sworn I had a certain Christmas tree pin that I'd found matching earrings for on etsy, but couldn't find it. Of course that doesn't mean I don't have it. The storage room of garage sale stuff is a huge mess. I'm also missing the mates to three earrings, and really ticking me off, one very expensive non-vintage snowflake earring I bought in Vegas years ago as well as my 1910s tin and rhinestone star brooch I got on eBay. I've been missing those for a couple years. I'm hoping maybe in a purse but I poohed out last night and didn't want to dig through all of them.

I also ordered a couple vintage brooches and a bracelet from etsy last night. I kind of like the not having to bid on things. Goal by next summer is to go through the messy storage room, pull out the vintage stuff, and start selling it on etsy, then have a massive garage sale and get rid of the rest of the stuff. I used to make some money on eBay but then it got so huge and nothing was selling, even vintage stuff.

I wish clients wouldn't just assume that because my boss is a conservative Republican I am as well. How the hell am I supposed to respond to someone ranting about Obama while waiting for my boss to arrive?

Watched the last two SPNs last night. I love Jody. Missed Cas but next week. Also watched Shield which was an okay episode. And watched Baylor barely beat Dayton. I'm going to listen to the Kentucky game this afternoon while I hopefully write--once boss is gone.

Well, need to get stuff ready for court, bundle up and go to court. :P Have not eaten lunch but not hungry. Weird.

Not sure I had a fever last night though I napped for about 2 1/2 hours on the couch.

I have one elbow that has dry skin/bites/something that's been itching off an on for a couple weeks. My other elbow is as soft as a baby's butt. Really, I don't have dry skin. This is annoying. There are little bumps on it...I wish I had sharp fingernails to scratch! My rounded ones do nothing.

I met the cat I'll be sitting for--looks like Elektra though even fatter. Friendly and pretty easy to care for, just once a day.

It's for a single guy. Do single guys not care that their houses are a mess when people come over? Hell even when my parents comes over, I clean first! At least tidy, if not sweep/dust. Dad will be at my place twice next week for bball games so part of tomorrow will be spent cleaning. Anyway, this guy's house was very cluttered. Mine is like that too, but not when people are coming over. Mars/Venus thing?

Then met mom and we went to the antique store in North Lawrence for the open house. Lots of holiday items and so damn cheap. All the antique places up there are cheap. I don't know how they stay in business. I spent $28 and got a metal bucket painted blue with snowmen, a metal shallow bowl that matches, and a vintage gold purse. Mom got a five piece serving set (platter, small platters, trivet, bowl) with holy leaves from the 1950s that cost $45.00, so $8.00 a piece. Several other women were buying up holiday items, too, so the owner was doing good business, I guess. I suppose rent is really cheap.

None of the other stores are doing open houses but they're all open next weekend (most are only open on weekends, including Fridays, which I guess also cuts down on overhead) so mom and I'll go there after the open houses at Brits and Au Marche. Helps that KU football plays the one Big 12 game we have a shot in hell of winning (Iowa State) that evening.

Then I discovered that they finally opened Iowa St. after endless months of redoing a six block or so stretch. On Wednesday it was still down to one lane each direction but they were powerblasting the east side--must have been the finishing touches. Finally can go the speed limit again. The cops were very sneaky--the 'end construction signs' in both directions were a good two blocks AFTER the road widened out on both sides and they were catching people speeding up from 25 to 40 all the time.

Then I got home and discovered the city replaced my mini-dumpster with one of their upright cans. *sigh* I'm very short; I can't lift heavy trash that high. Also, even though they're both 95 gallons, I don't like the configuration for big items. Not that I would, but I could get a tv in my old dumpster. No way in the new can. :P

(big break while boss--in a better mood today--was here)

Just watched Glee. Why is the perfect artist for me to sing rangewise Miley Cyrus for fuck's sake????? I've already sung one of her songs at church. *head desk* "Wrecking Ball" is perfect for me.

And now boss is back...

So, behind on tv due to napping last night. I didn't get home last night until 7:00 so only got the two comedies watched and my soap. *sigh* Parents' tonight, so will probably only get the shows watched after I get home that are on tonight, and then football, cleaning and hopefully writing tomorrow.

I need to sign up for Wish List, too, but did get signed up for a TW secret santa and another thing. It's that time of year when lots of writing gets done. :)

Well, better get to work...again...

Haven't posted anything substantial since last Friday!

Let's see...weekend was spent with nightly fevers and editing my polybigbang (which took four hours). Also watching lots of football--KU sucks, this is nothing new; the Chiefs were on a bye week.

Dad and I went to see Thor 2 on Monday and we both liked it. I think it was better than the first (which I enjoyed). Unlike most of my friends, I have no Jane hate, though definitely the most enjoyable parts were anything with Loki or Darcy. After that I posted my polybigbang with lovely art, and the first comment was a scold on the tagging. I fucking HATE that. Didn't even say if they'd read the fic! They wanted me to tag it polymory instead of threesome. No, because the first is a broad term and this is a threesome fic. Fuck off and die. If I post a rape fic and fail to tag that, then you can scold me. Otherwise, no. As I've mentioned many times, I started ficcing back when the only warnings anyone gave were for rape or graphic S&M. If you think an NC17 fic might trigger you, don't read it.

Y'know, books don't lay out all the possible triggers on the back cover yet people buy them. Why do fanfic writers have to warn for every little thing that might possible trigger someone? Frankly, nothing triggers me, so I don't even think about half the stuff people might be harmed by! I undertag because I literally cannot think of possibilities for many things.

And anyway the author's note said it was for the polybigbang; the threesome was noted; all at the top of the story. IT'S A FUCKING THREESOME FIC!

GAHHHHHHHHHHH

(Obviously I'm still irked about this. I did get some lovely comments as well. Also on my IWRY fic, which I need to upload to AO3 tonight.)

Boss came back suntanned and, I suppose, relaxed. They stayed at a five star hotel right on the beach. Naturally I'm still catching up on everything he's thrown at me to do. All the court documents I did while he was gone and several more this week took forever to copy and I wrote fifty checks for filing and service fees today. Thank god we started using typed checks because my hand was sore enough just from signing them.

Tuesday night was the big night. Out at my parents' while working I watched the Michigan State/Kentucky game that was in Chicago and was the game before ours. MSU nearly gave it away but relying on one player just isn't the way to go (Kentucky and Randle). So glad Kentucky's 'we're going to go 40-0' is already blown to pieces. Really, really can't stand Calipari--plus they're the traditional basketball rival of my parents' alma mater, Indiana. Brother and his family were at both games so we emailed a couple times. Dad got home from teaching and the KU/Duke game started at 9:25. I'd already decided to stay for the whole thing rather than race home at halftime.

To be frank, after Friday's shoddy game at home against a team we should have beaten by thirty (we won by like sixteen) and Duke's demolishing of Davidson (a very good team in recent years) the same night, I expected us to be blown out, down twenty at the half, killed by their star hitting three after three, their flopping and shooting free throws for flopping, our lackluster defense and the high number of foul calls with us missing free throws.

Well, if you saw the game, you know that the only prediction I got right was their star hitting threes (though we held him down in the second half which is when our star, Wiggins, took over, especially late).

Except we don't have just one star. Yes, Andrew Wiggins is being proclaimed as the next basketball god, BUT...Freshmen Selden and Mason were brilliant and Sophomore Ellis was...the star of the game. Not only for his shooting and his free throws, but the way he DIDN'T foul on defense but wove around the offense players and threw them off their shots.

Anyway, despite the high number of fouls, especially in the second half (both teams got a pretty even number of foul calls, which was surprising), and like nineteen lead changes and several ties, we won! Wiggins who sat for more than ten minutes in the first half with two fouls took over in the last quarter. Mason played point like a senior--man is he fast! Our bigs got into early foul trouble so we went small most of the way outside of our seven footer, Embiid, who didn't really shoot (except for the ill conceived three) but played really good defense.

AND, I have never seen a Duke team shoot so poorly from the free throw line. They were like 55%. They would have won the game if they'd hit their free throws. With these new rules, until teams learn to adapt and/or the refs loosen up a bit (really? an offense player brushing by a defender and it doesn't even impede his shot is a defensive foul????), teams that can shoot free throws will have a huge advantage. Outside of our big guys, we sure can!

Due to not getting home until midnight, I only watched SHIELD, which I'm still liking. Nice to see another side of Fitz and further expansion on the other characters. Also they continue the ties to the movies, what with characters and now next week's ep with a direct tie in to Thor 2.

Last night, after prayer book club and choir, I watched SPN which was very good, though I'm not sure what Crowley was doing there at the end.

I'm catsitting next week for a new guy, so tonight I'm meeting with him to meet the cat etc. I'm hoping I can go in the afternoons as he lives only about six blocks out of my way from going to my parents' which I'll be doing Sunday (Chiefs game with dad), Tuesday and Thursday, three of the five days I'm catsitting.

Then I'm meeting mom for a holiday open house in North Lawrence. We've already missed some last week. Why are they so damn early? Why can't they all be on the same day?!

After that I hope to get caught up on some tv. Obviously the mini-bang I was taking part in, where the rough draft was due yesterday, isn't happening because there was no 'send your rough drafts in' post or a check in post earlier etc. Not like I had anything done anyway...Well I had the thousand words from the previously not done TW big bang fic which, on further review, didn't suck as much as I originally thought and had some good ideas. And Peter.

Other attorney messed up a probate today and boss is pissed. Better him than me! But, pissy boss is not fun. He's gone at the moment, so I'm going to wrap this up and then get back to work.

well, if you like KU basketball.

Or, y'know, are obsessed with it to the point the video makes you tear up. Whatever.

( i won't force y'all to have it on your friends pageCollapse )

Song and video made by fans, not official or anything, yet really well done.

And yet some idiot said that Allen Fieldhouse is only the 7th best place in the country to play college hoops. Yeah, no.

So, the first real game is tonight. I was dithering over not taping Grimm so I could watch hour two of the game live on my main tv on the crappy TWC sports network (formerly the crappy Metro Sports) and then remembered that the Topeka CBS station is grandfathered into this stupid deal and I get that on all my tvs, so I'll watch the second half in the kitchen. :)

The big test is, of course, next Tuesday when we play in the Champions Classic against Duke. My brother has tickets because it's in Chicago. :P The Champions Classic (rotating games between Duke, KU, Kentucky and Michigan State) has been renewed with those four teams for another three years. I bet North Carolina's collective ass is frosted they're not included. *g*

Mom and dad are having this French dinner tonight for church auction bidders and she made gougeres which are basically cheese puffs with gruyere cheese, which is my second favorite cheese ever (after Stilton) and I had one last night. Nummmy. Which was better than the rather boring tomato soup she made.

Clexmas signups are up, so need to do that.

McDonalds is now using their Christmas cups. *sigh*

I got some writing done yesterday and watched (and enjoyed) the Bourne Legacy. I think I'll rent the rest of them even though I'm not a huge fan of Matt Damon. Also watched CSI while holepunching. I have Glee to watch today and TVD, if I can find it. CBS loaded CSI no less than eighteen hours after it aired, but I don't expect the CW to be that helpful with TVD. (I already have Glee.) I've actually gotten everything organized so just normal Friday stuff today.

I actually went to bed early last night, around 11:30--big shocker.

Since my grocery on Monday only had skim milk lasting through tomorrow and I need to bake my monthly quick bread for church this weekend since I'm not planning on going to the service on the 17th and the next weekend is the big Thanksgiving potluck, I'm going to go to the grocery tonight for next week's food. I was going to go after Thor on Monday but now dad does want to see it and he'll be picking me up. Once I'm home, I don't like leaving again--I'm weird. Also, I need pumpkin for the bread.

Will also pick up a can of pumpkin for the pie just in case there's a rush Thanksgiving week.

Dad can't figure out his scanner. He needed to print out a letter on KU letterhead then scan it and email it, and he wanted me to come figure it out for him, except the controls don't show up on the monitor but on the tiny screen on the printer which is way back in a corner, so I finally said, 'just give the letter to me and I'll scan it at work and email it you'. Took thirty seconds...

Okay, off to do stuff...

And four days off from work. I'm not cooking the meal due to KU bball right in the middle of our eating time so mom is taking it over again. All I have to do is make Waldorf salad and bake a pumpkin pie for dad which I can do post and pre parade. The Macy's Parade and the arrival of Santa is one of my favorite things. Though I have long since given up on the notion of not doing anything Christmas related until after Santa arrives at Macy's, it's still the start of the season for me.

Hallmark open house is this Saturday, for example.

I do not start playing carols or decorating until after Thanksgiving, though. I do shop before, though mom and I still do Black Friday (in town, not at pre-dawn). I'll have to clean my house before the break or I won't get decorating done--one downside of not having the meal at my place--no real impetus to clean.

So I'm off to their house tonight rather than tomorrow since there's a KU game only I get plus they have a dinner party. Oklahoma plays tonight, Texas Tech maybe? Football, so I'll watch that while working at the kitchen table.

Yesterday I got a lot of organizing done at work while watching tv--quite enjoyed both SPN and The Originals. Today I have The Bourne Legacy. I've never seen any of the Bourne movies but I like Jeremy Renner. Rather than pay Amazon to watch Gossip Girl, I put the final season up on Netflix since I already pay for it. They should come over the Christmas break if I keep watching two or three movies a week.

Dad and I watched SHIELD before the KU replay Tuesday. I was really glad to see the focus on not Skye. Still enjoying it a lot more than most people I know. I still say you gotta let Joss shows build. Buffy wasn't great Season 1 either.

Choir last night. We still only worked up two of the four Christmas pieces and one is quite hard AND a cappella. Only three more rehearsals to go and we're singing the week before Thanksgiving too, though it's a piece we've sung before. I could not remember it at all, but it started coming back as we worked on it. We also are planning to sing the Bowie/Crosby Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth song we did last year for Christmas Eve this year. The choir never sings for Christmas Eve service because of numbers and our choir director only in town every other year due to family, but hopefully enough people will be there. I love that piece, and the Altos sing the lead through most of it.

Then I watched Survivor, Criminal Minds, Ravenswood and Arrow. Let's throw ANOTHER plot into Arrow. Ivo and Amazo really? Can we just bring Slade and Shado into the modern world please and stop adding new story lines?

Only two more days sans boss but then three day weekend. I need to work on some WIPs and edit my poly bb. I wrote one fullmoon ficlet on "choices" and then immediately got another, dark idea, which I hope to write today before I forget it. Not a full three day weekend of laziness since mom and I are in KC in the morning and early afternoon on Saturday then KU losing to OSU. Sunday I have a music dialogue circle at church after service but the Chiefs aren't playing this week. Monday is Thor. :) Need to work better at delegating time which was what the Chalice Circle chapter on "balance" was all about.

I spend too much time reading and not enough writing. This is the only place I truly feel out of balance (and it could be worse, right? Reading is good.)

I'm not giving up tv watching. *g*

Okay, need to keep organizing crap and watch this movie...

OMG, Lou Reed died, and John McVie has cancer. All my childhood music idols have gotten old! When did this happen?

*sigh*

Well first day without boss and I actually got to work early. Yeah, IDEK.

I got the polybigbang done! Wheeeee! Well, the rough draft. And there was more sex than I planned. Go me. Actually there wasn't because while I added a Derek/Stiles scene, I cut the Derek/Lydia scene and just alluded to it.

Now I can get started on the million other fics I need to write.

No writing tonight because I have to clean the house since dad will be over tomorrow. It's not terribly messy, just need to tidy, sweep and dust the downstairs, clean the kitchen at least on a cursory glance, and clean the front bathroom which is rarely used and kept closed so it's not dirty.

Also heard from my SPN reversebang artist and looks like we're on the same page! Now if I'd just hear back from my polybb artist--after initial email, nothing. I'll try again later today to let her know the fic is done. She didn't comment on the check-in either. Posting starts sometimes after November 4 I'm guessing, so this is a bit worrisome.

Other attorney had an 8:30 meeting so we'll see if he's here all day. If he doesn't have anything in the morning he usually rolls in around noon; one day last week he got here at 4:15. Yeah nice life.

I watched TAR--yay, baseball wives!--and OUAT--yay, Hook (sexy except for the excessive chest hair) and then spent the rest of the night writing the rest of the polybb.

Busy week ahead other than work--KU bball tomorrow night, Simply Pray group and choir on Wednesday night, women's group on Friday night, dad over for KU football game on Saturday afternoon, plus working at their house tomorrow night. I declined going to their house Thursday rather than Friday because I need one night of just collapsing on the couch (as tonight is cleaning; luckily only Castle is on tonight). I'll do that to the sounds of Monday Night Football, which is Seattle and St. Louis. Thursday's game is Cincinnati and Miami which I have no interest in, so, unless I'm in writing mode, I won't be watching.

Great, three of the four Big 12 football games this Saturday are on at the same time. I guess Baylor and OU have bye weeks.

It's supposed to start raining tonight and not stop until Friday, so I probably should go to Court, but then I'm wearing heels, okay they're comfortable to walk in or I wouldn't have worn them on grocery day, but...

Actually, I'm quite sad. I put them on yesterday--they're my two inch heel black Mary Janes I got in Vegas several years ago--and my feet were sliding in them. They're too big depending on if my feet are swollen or not. *sigh*

Need to make more coffee...

I love how half the threads on the gridiron forum at phog.net are not about KU football but things like the Chiefs (the description is "Kansas Jayhawk Football Discussion") while the basketball one is like 98% KU basketball. Shows where our priorities lie! It's like how during television coverage of football games there's always a bit about KU basketball, Allen Fieldhouse, the basketball museum, images of Wilt and Danny etc. I'm pretty sure during televised basketball games, we never see anything similar about football. But it's a great place to take football recruits! Don't bother taking them to a football game, plop them down in the first row of a basketball game at the home of the sport! *g*

Oh, look, the Athletic Department put up a list of bars in KC with Time Warner Cable (ie the one that shows the game in the quality of a 1970s high school AV club) and half are in Missouri, one is a country club, one is a breakfast place that closes at 2:00, one is the fucking Black and Gold Tavern. lolol (For those of you who don't know, that's a Missouri, as in the university's, bar.) Brilliant. Oh, and an insurance company. Gee, wish my insurance company sold booze.

Now the holdouts who are just sure there will be a deal for everyone to watch the games before basketball starts have switched to before the regular season starts on November 8. I just love delusional people. Their comments are quite entertaining to read. Since my paper pulled its Facebook crap even the KUsports.com site has a noticeable lowering of comment numbers so I'm going to phog.net for amusement.

Well, other attorney is back, so probably should look semi-productive. I'm still watching last week's Revolution at lunch whether he's here or not.

Also, need more coffee...

Well, midnight, but that's an hour or so before my normal bedtime.

Boss has court all morning. I'm just waiting for the results and for him to go over all the invoices so I can send them out. I've paid all the bills, done the tax forms so he could sign them, and done the figuring on the payment letters for tomorrow, so I'm ahead of the game. Oh look, he left me a form letter to do. That'll take all of two minutes.

Is it just me or is it kind of creepy that other attorney was asleep in his office all yesterday morning and I didn't realize he was here until I heard him snoring around 11:00? His car was here when I got here but I figured he was at court, or off walking around 'cause he's kind of weird, and then I forgot about him. Apparently his cats were bothering him all night so he came to the office to sleep on his couch.

Yeah, IDEK.

I haven't had a chance to measure the space for the tv so no Best Buy today. Have to go to the grocery because I've been getting a lot of heartburn and need more GasX and toilet paper. Exciting.

I don't have the flu but I think I have a cold. Sniffles, scratchy throat, lethargy. Lovely. I was glad the songs we practiced last night were all low because I could not hit anything higher than a B and barely that. One of them I'm singing tenor on so that was nice and low. Amy was back, not only was she sick from a terrible cold, then she got the stomach flu and found herself in withdrawal over the pain meds she's been on since she broke her neck last Winter. Apparently no one told her she should have weaned herself off them by going with lower dosages for several months. Ick.

Still behind on tv. I did watch SHIELD--have to agree with others who are annoyed/frustrated they can't use the word Mutant (it's kind of like those couple years we couldn't have Superboy or Kon-El in the DC comics but could have Conner Kent)--and SPN which was wonderful though I assume the nutso Dean/Cas shippers have blown up their corner of the internet in denial, also, *sob* that look of confused hurt on Cas' face at the end. Last night I watched Arrow--Sin, really?--Survivor and CSI. It was so neat to see the end montage on CSI--300 eps, wow! Unless I suddenly get the energy and urge to write tonight, I'll hopefully catch up on some back tv while recording new tv. *sigh* If not, I'll watch yet another couple of bad teams in the NFL game. Again, bet these channels are kicking themselves for not taking a chance on the Chiefs for a couple nationally televised games.

Speaking of televised sports, the KU basketball fans seem to finally be coming to the realization that if they live in Kansas and don't have Time Warner Cable or Cox in KC or WOW in Lawrence, they aren't gonna get six basketball games, including the first exhibition next Tuesday. Since the stupid deal was made last June or so, they're have been many going 'oh, they'll make deals with Dish and Direct TV and Google Fiber etc. etc. because they don't want to piss off hundreds of thousands of Kansans and Kansas City KU fans/alums, right?

*snort*

Yeah, so not happening.

As many have said, well there are work-arounds for the espn3 blackouts, apps and programs you can download, and there's also a stream available out there or you can watch it on delay or go to the game or go to a friends' house or go to a sports bar, BUT...why should we have to do that??? For decades, if you lived in Kansas and had at least basic cable or a dish you got every single KU basketball game live. Someone on the forum yesterday rightly said that fans shouldn't have to do anything but turn on their tv to get the game. As I've mentioned, my dad's internet is so bad, he can't stream, so even though I could probably get him the work-around app, it wouldn't matter. Four of the six games are on Tuesday nights and he teaches then. If this was last year, he'd just record it and watch it when he got home. That's not an option with live streaming, obviously, even if he could stream. I'd tape it for him and he could come over after he's done teaching, but I only have one DVR--I'm already going to have to fiddle with taping stuff on Tuesdays in order to watch the games--luckily the shows I watch are all uploaded or on at other times.

Anyway this "deal" by the University continues to be annoying. Also, someone said the quality is like high school AV club. lolol Which it is. Even having a 40 inch flat screen tv isn't going to help the shitty grainy picture (and the channel doesn't come in HD).

We still don't know if this workshop is going to happen on Saturday. The SPN reversebang claims are right in the middle of it so most likely I won't get one, but, that's okay, I haven't even started the TW one I did claim (or any other things; really need to write instead of goofing off here).

Damn sinus drainage *hack hack*.

Gardener finally cut down the weeds where the blue spruce trees were and the trees growing around my AC unit but didn't spread mulch so if he doesn't come back and do that, I guess I'll have to or next Spring the damn three feet tall weeds will come back. Amazing how much the blue spruces kept from growing. I still need to mow one last time but I think that's more an after work thing than a weekend morning thing do to dampness/dew. I could do that this afternoon, but I'm pretty sure (100% sure) that ain't gonna happen.

I find it a little skeery that things predicted by various authors (including JD Robb) who write books set in the near future are coming true--wrist communicators, body sculpting. I like my pretty watches, really not ready to move to a clunky cell phone on my wrist. Also, I'd have to get child sized (as my watch slides up my wrist and spins around annoyingly).

Has the internet exploded over Jamie Dornan being named the new Christian Grey? Still won't make me go see this dreck, but a slightly better choice. Still miss him on OUAT.

Also apparently dad and I won't be going to see Ender's Game because apparently the author of the series is a big homophobe. Dad read the first book years ago and enjoyed it but couldn't get through the second. Interestingly enough, my nephew has recently had the same problem. Who knew genetics played a role in book reading. *g*

Speaking of nephew, now that he is twelve all those 'you can't do that until you're twelve' admonishments from his parents are coming back to bite them. He's now allowed to watch The Walking Dead. Whether or not my scaredy cat brother will manage to sit through them with him is debatable. I used to be the one to go to horror movies with his wife because he can't even watch sanitized versions on network tv. *g*

Well, boss should be back briefly any minute. Maybe should do this letter...

Well, I got the IWRY fic done at 11:00 on the dot last night. Most of the night was spent editing it. I only added one scene. Sadly no sex. *sigh* I just ran out of time. I picked the early submission window because of other fics due in early November and it came back to bite me on the butt. When I first came up with this idea like two or three years ago I wanted to make it massive but it's only 8500 words. I don't think it sucks; we'll see I guess. As the fic gets posted by the mod on the IWRY website, I'll let you few who might be interested in reading it know here. I'll also upload it to the series on AO3 when I'm allowed to crosspost.

I only got Castle watched (fun episode) so I am behind on several things now. Well, also watched Hawaii 5-0 while eating dinner. Tonight, after being at my parents', I hope to watch at least SHIELD and SPN. Tonight is busy with the PLL Halloween special and the premiere of Ravenswood (or whatever it's called, the PLL spin off). I've already given up on Wonderland. It just didn't grip me and I'm behind on tv already--adding one show I have to go watch on the computer isn't going to work.

So, let's see, over the last week I've gotten behind on: American Horror Story, Walking Dead, White Collar, Bones, OUAT, Reign. I think that's it. In the next 24 hours I'll be up to two eps behind on a couple of those--I really don't want to get into the bad habit of letting them stack up because then I don't watch forever because I feel like I need to watch all the back eps at one sitting. *sigh* That's what happened to Gossip Girl last year and then I lost the all on my dead DVR and no one did the naughty on them so I'm going to have get them on Netflix or something.

And I've got a busy week--gone tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night, pretty much all day Saturday unless the workshop gets canceled plus KU plays Saturday night, plus church I'm helping with (Day of the Dead) on Sunday and then the Chiefs.

Plus the need to finish the polyamory fic, work on other fics, blah blah. I can do that during sports that don't involve my teams (like last night I had Monday Night Football on--boy, I bet they wish they'd scheduled the Chiefs at least once; a no win team and a one win team, ratings winners guys) but not regular tv.

Blah blah, First World Problems.

I found the perfect Christmas gift for my mom but I already have a couple things in mind and it's pricey so I'm going to push it off on my dad or brother. Apparently brother (maybe nephew, maybe sister-in-law) will be here the day after Christmas for a few days which will be nice as I'm off work, and my house will be clean so he can actually come over.

Oh, at some point this week, Thursday maybe, I need to go to Best Buy and look at tv stands and order up the Geek Squad. The tv should arrive by the weekend or early next week.

Need to get my car serviced too.

GAH, busy.

Arm is still sore. So is the other one now but just when I push on it, like a bruise. TMI, I think my period started early due to the stupid pap smear--it's not due for about two days. At least I hope that's what it is because, again, TMI, I bled a lot on Saturday (the doctor knew there was some bleeding) and then it faded so that yesterday during the day there was none, and then it started again last night. I've had no cramps. Again it's very light right now, but I'm at the age where weird periods happen. Mine are usually no longer than two or three days with one heavy day, but always cramping, so I'm not sure what's going on. Has anyone ever died from a pap smear? And, GAH, can I just go into menopause now please?! I'd really like to be warm, too.

Sorry Dave and few other guys who might be lurking...

The thermal pj pants I wore last night are pretty much shot--the waistband elastic well pretty much isn't elastic anymore. I still am not ready to start wearing the flannels so I better do laundry on the couple pairs that aren't because Fall is well and truly here. Highs mostly in the 50s and low 60s; lows in the 30s. My house is holding at 65, not really getting any warmer even when I'm there and lights are on. Elektra has begun to spend part of her time on the heat vent in the living room. This knit shrug thing my mom bought me is really warm and nice to wear when I'm writing--it has a button, unlike my other shrug/shawl thing. The heating pad doesn't stretch to my writing area of the living room.

Well, actually have some letters to write, so should get working, as no clue when boss will stroll in.

Interesting--the controversial coat that Melissa McCarthy is wearing on the cover of Elle (people are saying it's too big, hides her, when a couple of the other women on this month's cover are in tight dresses) is a Marina Rinaldi. About twenty years ago at Harrods I bought a Marina Rinaldi little black cropped jacket that now fits again. I haven't heard the name since! Look, I have designer clothes! I'm fashionable!

*snort*

Gas is inexplicably below $3.00 here (well, $2.99 in most places, still $3.09 at BP/Amoco). It's dropped like seventy cents in under two months. I'm trying to save up fuel points on my grocery card so I can get like eighty cents off a gallon and fill my tank for under $40.00!

KU/Oklahoma here tomorrow. Disaster in the making. It's at 2:30 so I'm trying to figure out the easiest route to the doctor's office that takes me nowhere near the campus and doesn't take me out of my way too far (appointment is at 10:30). Yeah, there isn't one. I'll leave a half hour before the appointment, usually takes me fifteen minutes to get there.

Watched The Walking Dead last night. Daryl, yum.

Also watched Criminal Minds (ick eyes, of course I was eating dinner; also, bad Sark) and the two comedies. Parents are out tonight so I'm staying home. I only have Hawaii 5-0 as Haven seems to be a repeat of last week, though I'm recording just in case the blurb is wrong, so I'll watch Vampire Diaries and give Reign a try. Oh, and White Collar, wheeeeee!

I think I was feverish when I went to bed as I was so cold, even with cats on me. I got up about 3:00 and put on a heavier top and slept better.

I brought Rise of the Planet of the Apes to watch today; need to work on IWRY fic, too. Also write fullmoon ficlet prompt "skin" but I'm not feeling it. And watch Revolution. Hope there's more Charlie/Monroe interaction. I really want them to fuck. Sadly there's not enough fic like that. It's one of my Yuletide requests (well not the fucking as I never ask for explicit stuff though am happy to get it).

Need to draft a quiet title petition that looks very complicated; I'm not sure these notes boss wrote over everything are to be in the document or not; then do my normal Friday stuff and hopefully be done by time boss leaves at noon for a weekend trip.

So we might get Yuletide assignments today, more likely tomorrow. Wheeeee! I'm also on the pinch hitter list so the unmatched will go out immediately.

I had such painful heartburn last night probably from drinking coffee and eating brinner with bacon. Finally took a pill before bed and it did work quickly. Will take pill sooner next time--I've been getting it sometime when I don't eat healthy; nerts to that. Stupid getting older.

Well, after babbling endlessly last night, that's about it for now...

ETA: OMG, there's snow in the whole western half of the state. WHYYYYYYYYY??????

So, Yuletide mods did the right thing in the end but ignoring comments and concerns and questions really isn't the way to go. Though I do understand as I tend to not reply to harsh/hard comments either. (though it's a bit different when it's feedback over queries about a challenge/fest.)

Though I am going to respond to the pretty much stupid one I just got. Apparently posting a fic in more than one series is too complicated for people to figure out and read...

Yeah. Oh, the person said they like the fic, but "a lot of people" don't like it when you post in more than one series.

*rolls eyes*

Y'know, if it was the content, or if I used all small letters or didn't format paragraphs or something like that, okay, but that's just stupid. Some of the fics fill prompts for fullmoonficlet--and I have those all in a series; others fill prompts for a bingo card, and ditto so that I can keep track of them.

And it's not like I'm the only person who does this!

Sometimes I think people just need something to whine about! Really, if it's that confusing, don't read the damn thing.

It reminds me of the people complaining about people using both fandoms when they write a fusion. Or, one person complained. And that's actually what AO3 wants you to do.

I don't like all the excessive tagging at AO3 but I don't comment on someone's fic about how their stupid made up tags are annoying.

grrrrr arghhhh

So boss is actually off later today and not tomorrow. I literally have nothing to do. Well, I could set a couple hearings, but other than that, nothing to do. I'm about to go grab up a couple months worth of receipts and organize them.

Will when he actually gets here. (ETA actually going through closed files with open judgments and running credit checks on them to see if I can find people and where they're working.)

I need to call and get a manicure appointment.

I need to practice my solo for Sunday which I'm rehearsing tomorrow night but since boss will be here all tomorrow I brought the music to work on today. Also want to watch OUAT.

Quite enjoyed the final Pelant resolution on Bones last night and, as ever, Sleepy Hollow was excellent. He does need to change his clothes, though. He's not Cas who can magically get them clean...or could, at least, until tonight. *g* I am moderately excited about the return of SPN, more excited after seeing a promo and reading about the guest stars tonight and in upcoming eps. I'll try to watch both it and SHIELD when I get home from my parents'.

Need to sign up for Yuletide but that may take a while so don't want to start at work.

Would like to write something since I haven't since Friday.

Oh my polybb fic got picked quickly for art, yay! It's always hard to wait and wait. My summary was kind of silly, maybe that's what attracted the artist. There were only four or five fics in that fandom so it's pretty obvious which one is mine if you've been reading here. I sent a query to the mod asking if we can contact our artists once they've picked us as it's not in the FAQ anywhere--haven't heard back.

During halftime of Monday Night Football Chris Berman had some really nice things to say about the Chiefs. Welcome back, indeed. :)

Failed to do the meme yesterday--will try to get to it this afternoon once boss is gone.

Damn, forgot my headphones so maybe won't be watching OUAT. I need to call Office Depot and figure out why there's some weird ass hold on our order from last Thursday. I called customer service then and the woman said the hold would be off in 24 hours. Yep, no, still on hold.

Damn, boss in...

Actually got to work a few minutes early today.

Did get some writing done last night and hope for more today. I only have to have 8K words by Friday night/Saturday morning which is completely dooable as I'm about to write the first Derek/Stiles smooch scene (and then the Stiles freak out over Lydia probably dumping him for cheating despite her being the one pushing them together because they're stupid boys).

I watched the first half of Bones. *sigh* Then I watched this cute movie with Dylan O'Brien and Britt Robertson (from Secret Circle and Under the Dome) that had probably the most realistic virgin sex scene I've ever seen in a movie--as in it was really bad and awkward and they both regretted it. Called The First Time or something like that.

It's the first of October and supposed to be 85 degrees. That's just too much. And then by Saturday they low's supposed to be like 39. My body doesn't like those kind of changes.

I'm very congested. Stupid allergies.

Getting used to tooth. At least my mouth doesn't feel hurt or taste kind of metallic anymore.

Y'know, some people just like to bitch. The tagset was opened in Yuletide before it was finished and people are complaining that they'll have to go through it twice--once now and then when it's finished--and why couldn't they have just waited till it's finished and whine whine.

Who says you have to go through it now!? Just wait till it's done. Sheesh. I, for one, liked having a preliminary look (until they shut it down due to glitches) and I'll look through it again when it comes time to sign up. Either you make the time for both or you wait. Really, why is this is a complaint?

Seasonal godihatesmushedpairnames Spuffy is moving back to LJ which I'm glad about because I never did read anything over on DW and now, with loading all fics to AO3, I never use mine. I signed up for the Fall round because I'm a masochist. Though I always do get a lot of feedback in that comm which is really nice since I've been writing Buffy forever.

Speaking of Buffy, if I'm going to write what may turn out to be a massively long Hell fic for IWRY, I probably should get on that.

Boss is at lunch with his "girlfriend" ie the 80 year old little Austrian woman he takes out about twice a month and listens to her complain about the nursing home, her brother who controls her trust, etc. etc. She's kind of adorable actually. Drinks beer like a fish.

SHIELD tonight! Wheeeee!

It's really nice to see NFL highlights where the Chiefs are portrayed in a positive light. It's been several years.

I'm working on the closed files. When I'm on vacation and the boss' son works here, I think some of them just disappear into the aether. I hate working on closed files. Obviously I have no real work to do.

I'm also trying to figure out why the court is only closed on Christmas Day. Usually they take two days off. Trying to schedule my staycations. I'll probably work the 23rd and 24th and then take off through January 1 unless the court adds a vacation day there. I'm also taking the first two days of March Madness off again like last year and then eleven work days at the end of May into June for London and Scotland.

Okay, probably should wrap this up and work on the fic while boss is gone.

( SPN Meme, Day 19Collapse )

Feeling better so went to work. No fever, sore throat mostly gone, just a bit scratchy from sinus drainage. Voice like a bass.

I was relatively productive yesterday while at home--watched like eight Copper episodes, wrote some more on my shorter fic, wrote my fullmoon ficlet for the week, glared at the TW big bang. I should be able to watch the final two Coppers I have recorded tonight as well as Futurama, which will clear off all unwatched tv so maybe I'll take it in tomorrow to exchange it. I'd miss tomorrow's DOOL but I can watch that Friday at work online.

I have a large pile of work sitting here but I'm pretty much ignoring it for tomorrow. I've done about half the original pile.

Oh wait, can't do the DVR thing tomorrow as I have a manicure appointment at 4:30 and I don't want to leave the machine in the car in 95 degree weather.

Wow, the WOW website (my cable) sucks. I just want the hours of the local office! Nowhere on the website. God I miss Sunflower.

Royals came back in the 8th and won last night. Anytime we can get our closer in, it's a huge plus. Strike out, strike out, pop up back to him and the 9th was over. So I'll watch that tonight while hopefully writing again.

I don't have a blu ray player but the whole Star Trek controversy (of having to buy three/four different versions to get all the extras) is just plain greedy. I'm sure the DVD version won't have any extras but until I get an HD tv there's no reason to buy a blu ray player. Hell, I watch all DVDs these days on my computer anyway. The downstairs DVD player isn't even hooked up. Anyway, clueless companies are just making illegal downloads more enticing.

Google 'moose' and 'sprinkler' and watch the cutest video ever. :)

And that's enough of me.