Pin Human Formations

Last night both Colley and Gus decided they wanted to cuddle on the bed with us. In true cat fashion, they chose the Pin Human Formation for their sleeping placement. Colley slept in his normal spot between Erich and I at approximately my stomach. Gus decided to sleep on the opposite side of me down at my ankles.

So every time my body wanted to turn, I woke up.

In my experience, the Pin Human Formation occurs when the cats sense that something's wrong. I first experienced it when I had jaw surgery at age 16. Kelim usually slept with me with his head on the pillow. But Kashan rarely came up to me, preferring my younger brother as his human companion. Yet during the first 24 hours or so that I was home from the hospital, I had two large male cats in Pin Formation guarding me. Kelim in his usual spot with Kashan playing foot point.

It's uncanny how Gus and Colley seem to do the same thing. I'd say it was a male cat thing, except that Fizz has been known to get into the act, and my mom's female cats have done the formation, too.

So now I have this stupid paranoia that something's wrong that I'm not aware of...


Needless to say, I'm very tired today. I'm planning on making a lunchtime run over to Starbucks to get something entirely too caffeinated for my own good to handle the afternoon. And hopefully I'll go to bed early tonight, although I don't count on my brain agreeing to that idea.

******

Did anyone watch the South Park episode last night? (hence another reason why I'm tired). Most of the time, I think the show goes a bit too stupid to be funny, but last night was taking on the media circus that has become of the Shiavo case.

I haven't written about it, mostly because everyone else has. The entire circus makes me sick, and I want to smack all of the protestors and online pundits who are purposely driving this into the anti-abortionchoice movement, demonizing one side or the other.

The bottom line? The woman will not recover. Her brain is dead. She's breathing on her own because her brain stem is still intact, which continues the involuntary body functions such as breathing, but everything else is gone. The humane thing is to allow her still existing body to go in peace and let her soul go to rest. Her parents need to come to terms with it, and I see their constant fight as denial of the reality of the situation. For this, I give them condolences. They have lost a daughter. No parent should have to bury a child. But it does happen, and their refusal to see reality has led them into a horrid obsession that has become selfish. It's not about whether Terry should live-- it's that they can't let her go. Why do I say this? Because the parents have protested the medical staff giving her morphine to dull the pain-- because they're convinced that the staff wants to give her an overdose to speed her death.

Why, in any Divine Being's name, would you want your child to linger like that? Seriously. Considering the alternative, which is the current starvation. Why is the current solution being done, when a quiet morphine dosage could be used to release her peacefully?

It's selfish denial. I can only hope (although I doubt) that her parents will someday realize what they were doing. I could understand their fight if it had only been one year since she fell into this state. But we're talking fifteen years, folks. From my perspective, that's half of my lifetime.

The conservative Christians who protest this might actually want to take the surprising shred of truth from South Park last night-- maybe God has a plan for Terry in the afterlife. If these supposed morally right people accept God as omnipotent, they need to start listening. It was her time. There are some medical ailments from which people won't recover. And to keep their bodies going is attempting to play God.

Last time I checked, questioning God was against most of their faiths.

Anyway... that's my take. But really, the best post I've seen on the issue comes from Shandra.

~ Mel.

Memo to coworkers

When the power goes out at the office, it's not the end of the world. The office is not doomed. We don't get to go home five minutes after it goes off. We don't need flashlights to get around when there is emergency lighting and natural light coming into the building. If you want to go out to Starbucks and get a cup of coffee while it's out, you don't need my permission. No, I don't know if it's affecting the bank down the street. No, I can't get a contract copy off of my computer for you-- as my power's out too. No, really-- we're going to be okay.

Take a deep breath, enjoy your coffee. Make those phone calls you need to make. Clean your office (after all, we're moving in two months). If nothing else, go outside and enjoy the absolutely beautiful spring day out there and take a short walk in the sunshine.

Bottom line... Chill the eff out. It's a fucking power outage. You're all grown human beings. You've seen this before in your lifetime. You'll see it again. So WTF? STFU and deal.

Sincerely,
Your admin, rolling her eyes

Oh, and one more thing... You don't need a flashlight to pee, either. Especially if you're female. And no offense, but if you're using a flashlight while you're peeing, I don't want to touch it afterwards. Nor do I want to know what you're doing with said flashlight in the bathroom.

It's spring!

Rain has taken over and did a fairly good washing of streets and sidewalks yesterday. Hopefully New England will have a significant decrease in the winter grime that's built up over two months without a break of snow-covered ground. Although I'm sure it'll take a few more storms to really rinse all of the crud out.

It's so odd to see bare lawns. Seriously. I didn't realize how much I'd come to blank out the dirt-covered snow that was everywhere since mid-January. Of course, thanks to two months of blanketing, everyone's lawns look horrible right now. I hope the snow plus rain leads to very green lawns come May.

Erich and I had a nice weekend up in Maine. The weather was beautiful-- low 40's during the days with brilliant sunshine. The nights were below freezing, but that was to be expected. It's March... in midcoast Maine. I did get a few pictures while we were up there, and forgot to take others. (I'll get those uploaded tonight.)

Erich's mom has finished the renovations to her little apartment, and both of us were amazed at how good it looked. When she first moved into the little apartment, it was so dark. I was honestly worried that it would lead to depression because it was small and dreary. But I have to admit, she made some wonderful changes to her portion of the house. Lots of new windows. A repositioning of the doorway. It looks open, warm, and inviting-- and looks much larger than the 600 or so square feet that it actually is.

She's doing well. The move to Maine was a good one for her. Erich's worried that she's relying too much on her wheelchair. But otherwise, she seems healthy and happy. And ultimately, that's what's important.

Oh-- and she called me Daughter this weekend and expressed how happy she is to finally have one. (hee!) After all of the years of hearing horror stories about mothers-in-law, it seems that I'll buck that trend... hopefully forever. She and I are able to sit and chat. I like her. I'm not able to call either of Erich's parents by their first names yet, though. It just seems-- weird. I just don't know them well enough yet, I guess. A lot of it is fear of offending-- my parents (read=mostly dad) were kinda strict on the proper addressing for elders, after all.

We had Easter dinner on Saturday afternoon, rather than Sunday. Since it's a 4 to 5 hour drive home, we didn't want to get on the road too late on Sunday or have to rush through dinner. The ham that she bought was delicious. The blueberry pie did something stupid while baking and fell apart, but was salvaged over ice cream as topping. On Saturday night, she wanted to relax at home and do her leg therapy, so Erich and I had some alone time to go wandering. We both were craving lobster rolls, and since Red's isn't open yet for the season, we had to find another outlet. Maine seems to shut down by 9 p.m whenever we're there-- and at this time of year when very few places are open, 7 p.m. seemed late to find good luck on food, so finding a place early was key. We wound up at Cappy's Pub, which was a slightly claustrophobic seaside place. Not really a dive, per-say, but decorated to look like one. Very good lobster rolls. Fantastic haddock chowder. And good clam chowder, too. And yes-- it was white. Which is the only real clam chowder that should exist.

And yes, I realize I'm moving to Rhode Island, where they do things differently. My clam chowder, however, will remain white. thankyouverymuch.

We drank blueberry cream sodas and walked along the pier and the lighthouse. I got entirely too cold standing against the wind coming off the bay. And we danced across the somewhat firmer patches of ground to get into the apartment, avoiding the ever-present mud that pervades everything in Maine this time of year. When they say Mud Season, they mean Mud Season. It was extremely... mucky mud. All of that snowfall that has melted plus an unpaved driveway equals muddy ruts from hell.

And muddy cats

And muddy cars

And muddy clothes

Yet Erich's mom was wondering why we were leaving our shoes by the front door. You'd think she'd realize that after thirty years of demands to not track mud into the house, Erich and I have started actually listening to our parents...

seriously.

You got questions? I got answers!

A few days ago, I posted an ask-me-questions meme. Two lovely women dropped comments and questions for me-- and so, as promised, my answers to anything...

First, from Bozoette Mary, who has been giving sound, helpful advice on the mortgage suggestions lately... :)

1) How did you come to be a pagan?
Through a weird combination of my parents divorce, seeing the cracks in the reasoning of my childhood faith (and that of my friends), and accepting the beliefs that I've always had but hadn't validated until I went to college. I grew up a very devoted Episcopalian. The long version I'll have to turn into a full entry, honestly-- because it could take a long time to explain (and honestly get my own thoughts around). Through a lot of reading and prayer, I realized and came to accept (at first very warily) what my beliefs were, and why they fit under Paganism.

The short version of the answer, though, is that everything fell into place by one cold afternoon when I entered a Pagan shop in Salem during my freshman year of college. Things just clicked.

I'll do some more work on an entry on this for later this week. Because this question really is a deep one that I should give a proper answer to.

2) Do you have a dress yet?
Sadly, no. Other than talking rough dates, I haven't done any planning yet. I have an idea of what I'd like for a dress. But I need to go try a couple on.

3) Are you having fun?
Lately? Definitely. It's strange to say, but I definitely am. :) Life's been... interesting.. this year. In a very good way.


And from my West Coast twin, Minarae...

1) Are you laughing as much as I am over the fact that the two of us both turn 30 AND got engaged the same year, and are getting married within a month of each other??
Yes. I'm also rolling my eyes at how insane it is. :) You're sure that your birth record is correct, right? You weren't adopted from Butte sometime in January '75, too?

2) Now that you have a house, are there any new pets you might add to the three cat collection you already have?
If we were home more often, I wouldn't object to getting a dog. But we're not going to be home enough to properly care for one. We've joked about a pet-pet kitten for Gus to keep him occupied.

3) What's the most romantic thing Erich has ever done for you (aside from the engagement)?
Oooh... tough. I have two. And I honestly can't pick between them...

The first would be our first anniversary get-away to New Hampshire. Erich picked the place and surprised me. The bed & breakfast that we stayed at (fyi... that picture is of the actual room we had) was incredibly romantic. And the power was out for the first night we were there due to a bad thunderstorm-- which just added to the atmosphere.

The second thing was something very simple. Last Valentine's Day ('04), Erich had flowers sent to my office. But instead of the basic rose bouquet, he sent me red tulips and blue irises. They were so pretty and so different for Valentine's Day. I still think of them all the time.



Thanks for the questions, guys-- anyone else want to throw some out there? :)

~ Mel.

Book meme

Back from Maine. Have a few questions to answer from folks (anyone else? Please?). But while I decompress from the five hour drive...

1. grab the nearest book.

2. open the book to page 123.

3. find the fifth sentence.

4. post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! just pick up whatever is closest.


"Secrets are also useful for subverting the minds and wills of potential converts. A well-placed secret in the right ear may gain a new soul for Shar must faster and more lastingly than a conversion obtained at swordpoint. A favorite recent example involves a certain notable countess in Sembia, who was ignorant of the fact that her beloved husband was engaged in an affair with her sister... until a priest of Shar whispered the awful secret in her ear."

~ Lords of Darkness (D&D Forgotten Realms Accessory)

Is "lastingly" actually a word?

Granted-- it's a gaming book. They do whatever the hell they want.

But lastingly?

In an ideal world...

My post-work evening would consist of a martini, the finest meats and cheeses throughout the land (elegantly placed on a serving platter), and a cat on my lap. Perhaps later, I'll bring out the nifty new lap stand for my Egyptian Sampler project and sit propped against the pillows in our bedroom, working away dutifully on the heads of Horus and Osiris.

I'm about to have a long weekend, and I want to start off in style, see.

Of course, what will more likely happen is "I'm too tired to cook" and a trip to Wendys, watching Halo 2 on the TV as Erich blows the shit out of trash-talking teenagers, and a cat-- specifically Cat the Eldest-- crawling on me and releasing a sound that's somewhere between a quack and a bleat, and crushing my boobs as he demands attention.

This, of course, after I pick up the Jeep from its brakes-turned-into-the-165,000 mile-checkup appointment. Which is costing me a tad bit of money due to a severe alignment mishap that's wrecked both front tires.

yay.

"Blowout imminent" indeed. What the hell do you do when both front tires blow out, anyway? Spare tires are great and all... but they don't divide like amoebas. So yeah-- Jeep will be all patched up again. For its next 15,000 miles until a crisis needs to get averted. At least it's one less worry on my mind for the next few weeks.

Should it be disturbing me that with all of the talk of house money, $700 in car repairs suddenly doesn't seem like that much money at all? $700 literally appears like a drop in the bucket compared to the $20,000 we need to have for the house closing, according to the plan we're doing for the mortgage. Or is it just due to the über amount of repairs last year. What's $700 compared to a $6,800 body repair job, anyway?

I'm burnt from this week. It's just been stressful and weird around the office all week, and I can't pin it down why. Everyone's in a cranky mood. Things seem to keep breaking. Last Friday's tour through the new office space seems to have caused part of it. But a couple projects seem to be causing a few burrs in peoples' collective asses. Being the admin and all, I'm usually oblivious to project-specific burrs, however. I keep my head down and just keep cranking the paperwork.

*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*

Erich and I have the house inspection tomorrow morning. Crossing my fingers that all goes well.

Afterwards, we'll be packing up and heading to midcoast Maine for the weekend to see Erich's mom. I hope the weather holds until Sunday night. There's supposed to be another storm on Sunday, but the time it's going to hit is still iffy.

Which reminds me-- I need to make sure I have gloves and a scarf-- I imagine it'll be a bit raw right by the ocean.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. Blessed Ostara for those celebrating late. :)

~ Mel.

Houses and Weddings

Erich has officially sold over his soul to the mortgage company. He should hear back on the official approval this week. :) In order to qualify for a first-time buyers program, he's the only one on the mortage. Together we make too much money to qualify.

BUT... considering the amazing rate he got (5.35% fixed), this isn't a bad thing. Especially when we saw the reports of rising interest rates. As fast as this happened, we've realized that we timed this really, really well. Between the interest rates and the stats from our lender and broker that Rhode Island real estate is going up in value by 23% a year, we made the Right Call.

And honestly, I already feel so much calmer than I did last week. I think figuring out the down payment was the biggest worry. That's now taken care of/in process. Now? It's mostly a waiting game.

House inspection is this friday morning. Hopefully all goes well with it, and it's just little things like missing washers and doorknobs, which we can fix ourselves. We do have four big concerns, though, for our planning...

1) How's the roof (which is 20+ years old)?
2) How's the wiring (which apparently still has some knob and tube original wiring)>
3) Is the house cable-ready?
4) Is there proper electrical current and a vent for a dryer in the basement?

We've already decided that our first order of business with renovation/remodelling will be the floors. We'll pull up all the carpets and get the floors sanded and refinished (as needed). There is a known spot of old termite damage in the family room/TV area. If we can replace a few boards, great. If not, we'll have them sand and refinish as best as possible and use an area rug for now to hide it.

The second thing is rewallpapering the kitchen and the master bedroom. Those are the two wallpapers that are just too deadly to deal with. Honestly, all of the others aren't that bad.

Once we have that done, we'll probably spend the summer doing yard stuff. Erich has told me that flowers are up to me. So last night I was looking online for some ideas. Hydrangeas grow very well in New England-- and almost all that I see rotate through the colors here.

Do day lillies NOT grow anywhere? I love how day lillies look, especially if they're tended in nice, thick bunches. Perhaps sprinkled with some Asiatic-hybrid lillies in the front. Just think-- Stargazer lillies in front of a house. That scent wafting into the Florida room in the summer? Heaven. Add some hostas for some extra texture where needed, and we're good to go.

I would like to plant a hydrangea bush on the south side or that side's corner of the house next to the Florida room-- I think there is more appropriate sun for them there. Minarae's right-- they look amazing next to white houses. Especially when they generally change colors through the season, as they do around here. Blue hydrangeas are just striking.

In any case, with a large yard, some bright flower patches will be good. Over time, I'll develop them, but to start I'd like a few things that don't need quite as much care (like the lillies) but add lots of color. But I want to start by making the front of the house pretty and welcoming.

ESPECIALLY since (somewhat of a wedding announcement here) we're planning to have the reception for the wedding at our house. Outside of our immediate circle of friends, the chance of folks being at our new home before the wedding is fairly slim-- so we're thinking that it will be a perfect time to have the family-appropriate housewelcoming party along with our wedding. After all, both are a celebration of starting a new segment of life together, right? :) Something a bit more intimate and laid-back. Appetizers, cocktails, and friends. Really--what more can we ask for?

But I will admit-- wedding planning is basically being put on hold now until probably August or so. That still gives us plenty of time to plan and arrange things, but will allow us to get ourselves settled in. I'll be keeping those arrangements in mind as we tend the yard this summer. THAT at least will have to be figured out this year so we can get the yard in good order by next spring.

So that's the update. Providence, May '06. Our house. Date still TBD. But not the 20th. Because I promised a friend it wouldn't be that weekend. :)

Continuing to use Minarae's example...

In the comments (or via email)

A) Recommend to me:
1. a movie:
2. a book:
3. a musical artist, song, or album:

(B) Ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want and I will post the answers in a new entry.

(C) Copy and paste this meme in your blog, allowing your friends to ask you anything.

Using Minarae's example

I've had requests for RSS feeds on my site, and while eventually I do want to do that, the house buying thing just isn't going to allow me to focus on the website for a while. SO... until then, if you'd like to be notified when I've updated (rather than have to surf here), add your email address and I promise to send you updates!

Want instant, pre-surfing knowledge of journal updates? Add your name to my notify list :

email:

Powered by NotifyList.com

*annoyed*

Erich's at work and Jason's out with his potential girlfriend, so I have a day at home to get whatever done. So far, it's not going well.

Gus has decided to be an asshole and keep jumping up on the bookshelf that has a ton of stuff on the top shelf. He's managed to break two porcelain Santas that were up there already. (Thankfully clean breaks, so I can fix them with crazy glue).

We have our mortgage application meeting tomorrow morning down in metro Providence. In order to qualify for first-time buyers (since we make too much together to qualify), Erich's name is going on the mortgage loan alone. I will be added to the title and deed with him. Just in case they're needed, though, I've been pulling my information that the lender asked for. Thankfully, it wasn't that much-- tax returns for the past three years, a copy of the Purchase and Sale on the house, most recent paystub. No problem right? Well... the tax returns are giving me a little headache. We got our '04 ones done last night. 2003? Check. 2002? Where the FUCK are you?

I have three strange gaps in my taxes. I've always kept them in the same spot. I may be disorganized, but I've made a strong effort to at least keep my taxes together. And my '98, '00, and '03 returns were right where they were supposed to be. But '99, '01, and '02 are missing. I'll be searching as I clean through stuff today, but it nearly broke me into tears because I was trying to deal with Gus and find these at the same time. And I've never had a reason to pull them out, so I don't know why they'd be out of the folder set that I've stored them in.

I'm hoping that mine aren't needed since I'm not going on the loan. Or at least not right away. I'm going to bring the records I have anyway, just in case, and contact the IRS on Monday for duplicates.

Grrrrr... Erich, thankfully, has all of his stuff together, so hopefully we're okay.

I need to do a serious day or two of paperwork sorting. Once Jay moves out, that's my priority project.

The rest of the day today is going to be little projects. I promised Erich I'd do some ironing for him. We have a small amount of laundry to wash. A ton of laundry that needs to be put away. New swaps to announce on my penpalling lists. Swaps that I need to get out the door. Little things that will take some time, but that I should be able to get done fairly easily.

But this disorganization is seriously pissing me off. It's past time for a scouring. Anyone have a flamethrower I can borrow?

And now reality sets in with a vengeance

ohmygodwesignedpapersonahouseholyshitwhatthehellarewedoingcan
wehandlethiseeeeeekkkkkkk


My mom calls this "Buyers Remorse." Apparently it's actually a real term, because so did Erich's mom when I talked to her last night. That sheer panic and "What the FUCK did we just do?!?" is sinking in.

It's not a bad move. We're not regretting it. But now the responsibility and money is just looming in front of us. The down payment arrangements are our biggest priority right now. And it looks like an impassable mountain. (holy shit, 10% of the cost of the house is WHAT?!?)

Add in a good dose of my inevitable anxiety, and this gets REALLY fun, folks. Panic keeps going through my mind, tempered by the knowledge that a lot of first-time buyers go through this. It's scary. It's a huge life change. It's a transition to requirements to be Responsible Adult Homeowners (eep!). In a lot of ways, it's similiar to some of the sensations I felt as I was graduating from high school, ready to come to Boston -- nearly an alien nation to me -- for college. Fear of the unknown and a ton of excitement at the same time. Can I handle it? Am I ready? Yes, I am. No, no... fuck, I can't be old enough to own a HOUSE. What the hell am I doing?!?

I know it'll be okay. It's just a lot of hoops to go through. And hopefully everything will go okay and in late April, we'll close on the house.

It's also just the weirdness factor. After work last night, I drove over to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and the world around me just seemed surreal. A week ago, the thought of buying a house wasn't even on my mind. I knew we were planning to look at this house over the upcoming weekend to get an idea of the market. Now I'm realizing that if this goes to plan, we're only going to be living here a mere 8-12 more weeks. And that surreal disorientation throws me back into the buyer's remorse stuff.

Not to mention that I gave myself a forehead slap yesterday morning when I realized the whole timing issues with this. If everything goes to plan (and I realize it usually doesn't... but humor me), the current owner would move out by the end of May. Erich had talked about moving in the first week/weekend of June.

BUT... my office moves June 3rd. And I have to go to the new office for a short day on that Saturday to make sure things are going where they're supposed to, since I've been given the not-so-shiny-or-spiffy Move Coordinator badge. I can handle my entire life being surrounded by boxes for a few weeks if needed. It's just the idea that I'd be having to move my home, but not being able to DO it because I have to work.

Erich's not thrilled on the idea of movers due to past family history with them. But unless we're staying through June, movers might become a real requirement on this. We have a lot of heavy stuff. Thankfully it won't require going up a shitload of stairs-- we've already said that other than the required furniture to go upstairs immediately (our bed, dressers, and desks), we'd either put everything in the living room or the garage to start, and then just work box by box and carry it where it needs to go. (And yes, I'm going to be trying to clean through stuff-- starting this weekend-- so we can pare down as much as possible pre-move.)

All of these thoughts swirl at once. But for now, I need to get my mind to focus on getting the mortgage arranged. That is our current priority. The rest can be figured out as we go.

~ Mel.

Update to bouncing and being stunned in my last entry...

Sorry for the semi-cryptic entry last night, but both Erich and I were overwhelmed...

Said bouncing and stun-edness was caused by a little phone call last night...

They accepted our offer! We got the house!



Eee!

*thuds*

*dies happy*

*bounce bounce bounce*

*sits stunned, but really, really happy*

* thuds *

We made an offer on the house this morning. Keep your fingers crossed for us! :)

Photos are here.

We would pull up the carpets. There are finished hardwood floors throughout the house where carpet has been put down. And obviously, a good portion of the wallpaper is dated. But that can be done gradually as we have time and money.

When we walked in, it immediately had that cozy, multi-generation gathering feeling. This house has been in the same family since it was built. The current owner is a woman just shy of 80. Until recently, she shared the home with her mother (who just recently passed at age 102). And it's been well cared for.

It's a wonderful size in a pretty neighborhood that abutts a beautiful, huge park.

I really hope we get it. :) Erich's mom thinks we should write a personal letter to the owner expressing how we're starting our life together, and just see ourselves going forward in such a wonderful home. I'm seriously considering writing it tonight.

Life does move pretty fast, doesn't it?

(Post writing warning-- this went really all over the place. It's long. But it's one of the rare truly inward-reaching entries that I'll write off-the-cuff)


I'm taking the advice of Ferris Bueller and stopping to look around for a moment. Because all of a sudden, life's moving obscenely fast. In a good way. But I'm amazed by all of this, actually, and am a little stunned. Is this what turning 30 does to a person? Or is it just that I've been a slacker since college, and now I need to catch up?

Adding to the still-amazed-at-the-concept-of-marriage event, now we have something else that's really, REALLY big going on.

Sunday? We have an appointment to look at a house. For us. Not for a friend. Not for my brother. Not for my mom.

Us.

And on the outside, it's absolutely beautiful. Minarae has seen an image of it and immediately protested how much said house would cost in San Diego. (I'm not going to post it, though, since we don't own it). I had to point out that this house isn't in Boston or environs. It's in Providence, RI. Where houses are still (amazingly) affordable and we actually have a good shot at getting something that doesn't require us to have up and downstairs neighbors anymore. We've accepted that Massachusetts just Isn't Going To Happen. We can't do it. Not if we want to get a place we're comfortable with.

I just sent Erich copies of my last two paychecks and my W2 for the credit check-- we're going to see what we can get pre-approved for in case this needs to move fast. My head is swirling about this. A house. Not a rental. A house that's owned. I could be living in a house that I own within months. I'm scared shitless, but so excited at the same time. This actually could happen.

And let's get back to the shiny thing on my left ring finger for a moment, to add it to that little mix, shall we? ;)

Wedding date: Isn't definite yet, BUT... as of right now we're planning for May 2006. Place as yet TBD. The reason it's not yet definite is because I want to talk to Erich's mom over Easter weekend to see how comfortable she is with traveling, and now far. Erich would like the wedding to be in Massachusetts. I'm honestly pretty neutral on location. BUT... from talking with my mother, it is expected that we'll at least have a reception in Pennsylvania. And since Mom will be paying for a good portion, I'm going to have to compromise if we have the ceremony up here. (as an aside, splitting the difference and having it halfway between Mass. and Penn. isn't a problem for me, either).

So I need to talk to Erich's mom and get some of her views on this. Because her lesser mobility has to be factored into the equation. So over Easter, I'm going to talk to her and see what her opinions are on this. While I realize that it is ultimately up to me, Erich is her only child-- and a son. She needs to be included as much as she'd like to.

And as an aside, did I mention that my mom was thinking of coming up for Mother's Day, and then we'd all drive up to Maine? The moms would meet. This should be... interesting. Hopefully in a good way.

I'm just in amazement, here, over everything. It's foggy as to exactly when it occurred, but I distinctly remember MY contributions to a conversation back home in Montana that has replayed for years in my head.

During the last Christmas vacation where I saw Andi in person, we had a girls' afternoon at Andi's childhood home for the small group within the band geek group. Jenn, Andi, and I sat there. It was 1997-- we had all just graduated. I was about seven weeks in post-shock from my November 7th nightmare and internalizing everything... as usual. Outwardly? I was... surviving. Inwardly? I was a fucking disaster.

Jenn at that point was engaged, I believe-- I don't think she was married yet (or if she was, it was recent). House buying was on the table for her. I don't recall Andi's romantic situation, but I believe she might have already been with Shawn (her husband). And I was... yeah.

We talked about Jenn's wedding and (gasp) the house. Because it was completely alien to me to even think about a house. At some point during the conversation, I spoke up-- partially out of the current pain, partially out of resignment due to the Jason situation... and commented that I was probably never going to be married. Never have kids. Never have a house. And somewhere along that conversation, Andi made the comment that she just saw me as loving my independence too much. It wasn't a cruel statement in any way. The person she'd known in high school and who she'd seen through emails and such through college was an independent person.

At that point (and honestly, probably until just before I met Erich), I firmly believed I was going to be by myself for the rest of my life. That was probably the only thing I KNEW to be true about myself at that point with any measure of coherency. I was going to be alone.

Given the person I was at the time, that probably would have been a good thing, honestly. Because I had a loooonnng way to go to become me.

Now all of a sudden all of those things that I never thought would happen are smooshing together. And despite this entry, I just don't have the words to describe the feeling. Not really. :)

Can I just yell "Eeeeeeee!" and bounce a lot like a teenager instead?

Gaming segway...

We had our monthly World's Largest Dungeon game last night. Things went well. In our allotted four hours, we did some good scouting and mapping, as well as re-equipped ourselves with weapons. Since there are only rare opportunities to purchase things (technically not part of the game, but Derek's cool and has some joint sessions with all groups to trade, discuss, and purchase things), these types of discoveries are key.

I find that I actually am fascinated by the dungeon crawling. It can be tedious at times, but the constant discovery of new rooms and being the mapmaker is fascinating to me. This place is huge. We've barely scraped the surface of it, even though four separate groups are scouting. I have to wonder if any of the other groups have left the area we are in and are adventuring elsewhere in the dungeons. I think there are around 12-16 sections or so. We've been on section one for the entire time.

(that might be changing soon!)

I need to catch up on my notes and personal mapmaking for the adventure. There's a lot going on, and since I missed one session, I have been lax at cleaning up my notes into a final archival form. I'd put the updating as one of my spring cleaning goals anyway, so hopefully I can get that caught up in the next few weeks before we play again.

And I leveled my character (yay!)

Erich's game is on Saturday. We've made a plan to clean up the sty that comprises our apartment between tonight and Saturday morning (since tomorrow evening we have a birthday dinner to attend).

I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use for my itch-avoidance during the 12-hour gaming stretch. I just can't sit still and concentrate for that long, so I use my backstitching projects to keep my mind off of the starting itches of hives (which have been so bad this winter with the cold air). The problem is that after the last session of Erich's game (two weeks ago), I finished a LOT of the backstitching on The Castle. I don't know whether I'll have enough to keep me occupied all game. I guess I'll just do whatever I do have, though, and then just stop for the day. Egyptian Sampler (which is my current rotation piece) is just too complicated to stitch on AND concentrate on the game.

Back to work...

Laptop batteries

*sigh* The battery on my laptop is dying. It starts at 100%, and within 45 minutes is down at 28%, having only used my mail server-- during which time, I might add, I was working essentially offline.

It's quite sad. My laptop currently isn't that mobile. But I can't be all that surprised-- it IS the original battery, and it is 3 years old now. Jason's did the same thing to him. They don't have an unending life span, after all.

If anyone sees a battery for a 14" G3 model Apple iBook in their neck of the woods, can you tell me? They're somewhat hard to find, but I need to start searching so I can make my laptop functional again for reasonable amounts of time over chai at Starbucks...

*sigh*

I'm glad Comcast email is available online during the day... that's all I have to say.

Amusing things from this weekend...

Did you know that they make kosher pez?

No. Really. I'm dead serious. Kosher pez. While I'm all for being strict about religious conviction and eating according to your faith, I just can't see how the Rabbi would justify blessing pez candy. It just seems so... frivolous. And it's giving me very strange images of the Rabbi blessing a pile of pez candy on the altar.

Heh.

Anyway. I discovered this weekend that there is, in fact, kosher pez. And where do you find it? At the Pez museum, of course! Conveniently located in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania-- right next to the Crayola museum.

Sadly, we did not have time to go into the Pez museum, as we were decked out and on the way to my grandpa's party. But next time we're at my mom's, the Pez museum calls. And we're bringing back kosher pez for all of our friends so they can be good during Purim and Passover.

Anyway... the weekend went great. The only bad thing was that the drive killed me, intensified by attempting to sleep in a double-sized bed with Erich (when we're used to sleeping on a king). Poor Erich had to drive home by himself because I just was not awake enough to drive safely.

Photos will come soon-- my battery has run out on my digital camera, but the charger was left in the hotel room by accident at Arisia (and not realized until weeks later)-- so we need to get another one.

Grandpa's birthday party was a great success. It was held in a former bank in Easton, which apparently had been a jewelry store for a while before it sat empty for many years. It's a very big old building with lots of detail on the ceiling, a fantastic balcony, and plenty of space for function renting. It's one of the possible places for our reception, should it wind up being in Pennsylvania.

About seventy people were there-- all of the grandkids and kids, plus many friends of the family (young and old). My granfather said that he sensed something was up when he was driving downtown, but he was quite surprised and flattered-- he had tears on his face when we all started singing to him. (he's so cute). The native Polish speakers then immediately started singing "Sto Lat," which is a simple song sung for birthdays (although I've heard it over the years for other happy celebrations in our family, too-- it's a cheer wishing a hundred years of blessings on the individual). They even raised my grandfather in "The Chair" singing it later in the evening. Thankfully, though, they didn't throw the chair up in the air as they had years ago at Katie's baptism.

It was a great evening. Erich and I did some slow dancing, and I felt VERY accomplished to get him on the floor for one of the few polka songs, although he was confused as hell as to what he was doing (this will be a mission for me-- because he'll have to learn it for any family wedding celebration given that he's adding Polish culture into his family now!) It had been a while since I'd done a polka, though-- and I was dizzy very quickly.

One of the cutest moments was seeing my three year old cousin, Clarissa, trying to catch light from the disco ball on the dance floor like a kitten. She's so adorable-- a head full of blonde curls, always smiling, and completely fearless. She's the life of the party. When she's a teenager, she'll be the one they have to watch out for!

After the party, we went home and rested for a few minutes. Mom headed to bed, and we decided to jump out and get our Holy Experience at the Grocery Store taken care of because we never have time for it the morning we leave. Wegmans IS the religious experience shopping store. Just the prepared foods section... They seriously need to come to Massachusetts! We bought three different cheeses, two wonderful breads (pepperoni and cheese bread!!!), birch beer, and a few knick knack things.

On Sunday morning, Mom helped me get some of my stitching stuff squared away. She has a serger sewing machine and edged every piece of fabric in my stash for me, including my WIPs that were taped on the edges in old Quaker sewing style. I hated the tape-- I really did. If any of it peeled back, it stuck to everything. Ick, ick. Having a clean stitch around the edges will be SO much better.

Then everyone came over for brunch (ham and pasta salad). It's pure chaos when everyone comes over, but it's nice to see everyone.

A couple hours in, Erich and I left. The reports of heavy snow coming to New England made us hurry to get home-- while we don't mind the snow, driving in it for hours in the dark was unappealing. We decided to try to stay ahead of the storm by driving I-95, rather than going up I-87 through the Catskills. The only problem that worried me about I-95 was that it took us directly into New York City, going over the George Washington Bridge and through the disaster that is the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Miracle of miracles, the traffic was NOT bad at all. Sure, it was tied up in the Bronx-- there's just no way to avoid that. But there was no line to speak of going to the GW. And it was heavy traffic in lower Connecticut, but it was moving at full speed the entire way. We saved two hours off the NORMAL drive down there by taking I-95 the entire way home. It took 5 1/2 hours. We were home at the respectable time of 7:30 p.m.

Not too bad. :)

It's taken me the last couple nights to feel caught up on sleep, though. Two nights of scrunching with Erich as I try to curl my fat ass up is just a bit too difficult. Next time we're at Mom's and Scott's there? I'll go camp out downstairs with the doggie on the couch. We might get more sleep that way!

Do you have thoughts I should be reading?

First-- a huge congrats to Minarae and Petrouchka on their engagement.

There's something in the air this year, isn't there? ;)


I've realized that I don't explore new journals as much as I'd like to, and while I've surfed around BlogClicker and such, I keep winding up on advertising site FOR blog services or templates, and not a lot of journals and blogs.

So... if you're reading/lurking/surfing this and want me to come over, leave a message here with your URL. If Haloscan's being pissy, there's a guestbook in the left corner of the page. I will come read. I will come comment. And I very well might be adding you to my reading list if it strikes my fancy.

If you have a journal that you love to read that you think I should be reading, give me a recommend.

I need some new voices to add to the current reading list to come up with things to think and write about.

So who wants to be a victim? ;)

Oh. Yay. So now it will cost over fifty bucks to fill my car

From CNN...

Big gas price surge soon?

Report says pump prices could shoot up by about 25 cents a gallon in coming days to new record.
March 4, 2005: 8:11 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Gasoline prices could rise by about quarter a gallon in the coming days to new record levels, according to a published report Friday.

USA Today, quoting energy experts and analysts, reported that a gain of 24 to 28 cents a gallon is possible as stations scramble to keep up with recent increases in oil and wholesale gasoline prices.

An increase of 24 cents a gallon would put the average retail price of a gallon of regular gas at about $2.16 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Agency, the Department of Energy unit that tracks prices. The EIA's survey put the average price at $1.928 in Monday's survey, up 2.3 cents from a week earlier.

The EIA's earlier record of $2.02 a gallon for regular was hit in May of 2004.

Oil prices hit $55.20 a barrel in trading Thursday, which was within 47 cents of record intra-day levels for crude oil. But prices retreated about $2 a barrel since that high. Gasoline futures set a record at $1.5450 a gallon.

The paper reported that even higher prices could be ahead as increased warm weather driving pushes up demand.

Tom Kloza, senior analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the paper that retail gasoline prices lag increases in wholesale prices since Christmas by about 25 to 28 cents a gallon. He says he believes the record prices won't come until the latter half of March.

But Peter Beutel, president of energy tracking firm Cameron Hanover, said a spike of 24 cents a gallon could happen in the coming days.

"It's going to be brutal, horrendous," he told the paper.

Hittin' the road

Erich and I are off to Pennsylvania for the weekend. We drive down this afternoon/evening and come back Sunday. So if you're looking for me via email or here and I don't get back to you, that's why.

My mom, uncle, and aunt are hosting a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather tomorrow. All of the grandkids are going to be there-- including my brother, who flew in last night from Arizona.

It should be a very fun time. :)

Oh, and yes-- my email's working again. So in theory, I can finally answer email.

~ Mel.

February Stitching Recap

Taking another thing off my to-do list. Whee! :)

I got a lot of stitching done last month. I'm very happy with my progress on things. Although I have a lot left to do on all of the projects, I feel like they're moving forward and aren't in a permanent UFO (Unfinished Object) pile.

My largest project (and the one screaming for me to complete it) is The Castle. Lots of work done on this in the past month. At least 20 hours worth, between stitches and backstitches. As of last night, it looks like this:



For reference, last month's image is here.

I'm happy with how it's going. The top half of the pattern is now nearly done-- I need to finish the backstitching and do the smaller wing (where the green lines stick out of the image on the right). Then I can focus on getting the bottom half of the pattern done, which is a lot of rocks tumbling over one another. I've started outlining them on the bottom right.

At the rate I'm going, I might actually finish this by the end of the summer. Hopefully earlier, but I always underestimate my backstitching time... so I'll say estimate of August at this point.

My next project that had updates is Cats on a Staircase, which eventually will look like the stocking that it is. Yesterday's photo:



(My previous reference is here. And yes-- that Himi cat is sitting on a stair of white stitches... ugh, they're evil to do!)

It's moving along. I really struggled with my counting on this one in February, and didn't get nearly as far as I'd hoped because I kept miscounting the same area over and over on the Himi cat. And it's still off a bit-- the orange cat's tail is supposed to be connected to the bannister rung next to it. Thankfully I don't have to pick out stitches to do the correction. The tail won't screw up the rest of the pattern, as it's free-standing on the fabric. I'll make the adjustments and counting marks for the next things over from it next round.

Egyptian Sampler has no update. I bought new fabric to start it over. It's actual stringy linen now-- so before I take pictures or take a breath near it, I need to get the edges serge-stitched at my moms. Otherwise it's going to disintegrate in front of me. But it's going to look AMAZING when it's on this fabric.

I started Smokey Mountain Cats this month, too. Didn't put a lot of time into it, since I've been fixated on The Castle. But it has about five hours or so on it so far...



This is my lazy piece. It's a large piece-- overall, it's larger than The Castle will be, especially since it's a solid rectangular block of stitches. But there's NO backstitching on it, other than the eyes of the cats. There's blending threads, but nowhere near to the extent of a Teresa Wentzler design. Lots of very wide swaths of blue stitching. Forms come out of the project very quickly. The deepest blue is a set of ears. The right hand edge of stitches *is* the right hand edge of the design. So I'll be working through everything I have outlined by the hoop before I move on... and do this in blocks. It's a relaxation piece with no big "must finish" timelines. I'm stitching on it to take a mental break from The Castle and Egyptian Sampler, which are very attention-demanding for details.

And I'm amazingly done with my rotation. I'm taking a break until Saturday, when we're in PA... and then will get back to it after I stitch the edges of my fabrics. :)

Yay craftiness!

Dammit

So I get up this morning to get some email done, and notice that none of the emails I'd sent last night to yahoogroups had showed up in my inbox.

Then I notice that I have thirty emails sitting in my outbox.

I open it.

EVERY message that I've typed since February 20th into my Entourage application is sitting there, stuck in "sending" mode. I can't open them. I can't do anything with them. Other than figure out what I typed and retype them into the webbrowser version of Comcast.

Dammit.

*sigh*

So if you've been waiting for an email from me, that's probably why you haven't heard from me. If I typed it from home, it's stuck in Entourage hell. Hopefully I can fix said issue this evening (rebuild databases, etc.)

Effing Microsoft...