Grass and Sky

I went shopping yesterday. Spent loads of money but caught lots of good after-Christmas sales and really replenished my wardrobe. Six shirts, tights and socks, two sweater dresses and a pair of boots. And then I pretty much crashed for the rest of the day.

Today we got out early to see Sherlock Holmes, which I enjoyed. And I only coughed a few times during the movie. I do believe I'm on the mend.

Next up was a trip to the vet's office. A couple different times this fall I thought I might have felt a little bump in Zoe's lower belly, but never for sure. Yesterday I felt it for sure, so a vet visit was called for. The vet says to keep an eye on it - if it's still there in two months or grows at all, take her back straightaway. Otherwise, she's probably fine. Zoe's a ridiculous girl and hid in the upper cabinet half the time we were there (but at least she didn't attempt to escape through the ceiling tiles). While there, I made an appointment for Mal so he can get his shots. The girl at the counter immediately asked if it was Mal like from Firefly. *grin*

I still haven't got around to watching Doctor Who. It will happen eventually, just not sure when.

I made it to the gym today, marking this week as the first time in over two months that I managed to do a 'normal' gym schedule. I ran three miles at a slightly faster pace than on Tuesday. I was running so well right before I received my mysterious, unexplained leg injury, but it's going to take a little time to get back there. I don't want to re-injure myself just because I hate running so slow a turtle could pass me.

I've been resisting weighing in, but forced myself to do it today. Not quite as bad as I feared, but the highest number I've ever seen on the scale. I'm keeping in mind that it was an end of day weigh-in (I usually do morning) and I'm pmsing like mad, which can add as much as two pounds. But still. Not a good number to see.

I received a holiday card from liptonrm. Yay for the first card of the season! I still have high hopes of actually getting some cards out to people this year, but it's no guarantee. If I have your address, I'm going to make an effort, but it's going to be a busy weekend, so no promises.

I'm not at all sure how this is the last weekend before Christmas. I haven't done any shopping yet and I thought I still had two weeks. Nope. So I'll be heading out first thing Saturday morning in order to get stuff bought, wrapped and mailed by the time the Post Office closes on Saturday afternoon.

There are a few jobs that I should be applying for right this very minute. One of which is an archives position located in Hawaii. But that job posting specifically says that they will only take into account previous jobs in archives (I don't have any), and they explicitly spell out how many college courses need to be in American History (possibly none), US civics or government (definitely none) and a few others. It's a gov't job so none of those things are really negotiable. But, Hawaii! *sigh*

It's 9:30pm and I'm just now getting around to remembering that I should eat something. It's been a busy day.

*Got my hair colored and trimmed. That should hold me for another four months or so.

*Went to the grocery store. Got all the way to the head of the checkout line before I remembered that my debit card wasn't in my wallet. D'oh! I had enough cash for the essentials, but I'll have to go back tomorrow if I want to have enough food to eat this week. This, btw, was the first warning sign that Stupid Meeshie Brain (SMB), which I've been suffering from all week, was still in full effect. Thank goodness I made sure to have cash for my hair, otherwise it could have been very awkward/bad/awful.

*I put together the lining for my bustier and got the whole thing put together. Got the zipper in and tried it on - it fits perfectly around the waist but was a little big around at the top. I put in a dart on either side and that seems to have mostly fixed the problem. The other problem with it is that I have love handles at the waist. Specifically, the one on the right side is a little bigger than the one on the left, so it pushes the bustier up on one side, making the top look lopsided. Other than very targeted fat-shaving, I'm not entirely sure what to do about that problem . But, it's mostly done. I need to do a bit of slip-stitching still this evening, but it's a functional garment at this point and I'm thrilled with it.

*Washed a ton of laundry. Five loads! Unfortunately, the last two of those loads were blankets. Cat hair laden blankets. All that cat hair clogged up the drain-sink's drain, leading to another adventure with a mop as I endeavored to clean up all the standing water (another attack of SMB led to me not ever even thinking to check the drains). But the last blanket is in the drier and everything else is folded and put away.

*Stripped the bed, washed the blankets and stuff, and vacuumed the mattress. There have been no more bug bites since the initial ones Wednesday night/Thursday morning but I'm taking no chances. If any more bites occur after this, I'll by a handheld steam cleaner and use that on the mattress. Of course, after the disaster with the blankets, I haven't tried to wash the pillows. But, SMB again, I did five loads of laundry and failed to wash any of my dishcloths so I will be doing more laundry tomorrow. I may sleep without the pillows tonight and throw them into the evil machine in the morning.

*And now I'm eating some Chunky Chili soup, which tastes even more abysmal than usual. I have a feeling Mal is going to get more than his fair share of this dreck. Time to put on some mindless tv and get to slip-stitching.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's been a very laid back holiday weekend. I did next to nothing Saturday and yesterday, although I did get the laundry washed. (Note to self: fold the laundry.)

It's been a movie-watching weekend. Yesterday, I watched a movie called The Curiosity of Chance, filmed in 2006 but set "somewhere in Europe, sometime in the eighties." Chance is an out of the closet teenage boy trying to make it through his first months at a new International school. The eighties soundtrack was fun, the clothing and hair varied from early to late eighties but there were no Madonna look-a-likes, so that was something. It was a bit of a dramedy with more focus on the comedy aspects. The acting was mediocre at best, with the young stars putting a little more hip hop, Justin Timberlake attitude into their characters than is possibly warranted with the 'sometime in the eighties' description but it was entertaining.

Next up was Highlander. It was on my list of 'gotta see 'em sometime' movies and this weekend seemed like the perfect time. Hm, yeah, it was mostly crap. Full of silly camera angles and dramatic pauses, with Christopher Lambert doing most of his acting by means of gazing off into the distance while flashback sequences were shown. This movie was authentically 80s and as such a certain amount of that stuff can be forgiven, but it was just a bad movie. Marginally entertaining, but I found myself laughing in places where I don't think laughter was the desired response.

I did get out of the house for a bit earlier. Did the weekend grocery run. Thanks to the humidity it was less fun than usual, but I have food in the house and that's always a good thing. And now it's time to start thinking about supper and how to pass the evening hours away.

I was supposed to go shopping this morning, but the Pittsburgh Marathon had other ideas. My friend was completely unable to get from her house to my house via any known roads, so we postponed for afternoon.

In order not to waste the day, I started doing laundry. When I went down to the basement to switch from the washer to the dryer, I found the drain sink completely full and overflowing, with a good half inch of water standing on the floor in the laundry corner (which is raised above the rest of the basement by a few inches and doesn't have a drain in the floor). Grimacing, I reached into the sink full of grey, murky water and fished around until I found a rag blocking the drain. Then I ran upstairs and borrowed my landlady's old mop (the kind that requires a bucket with a wringer, which I don't happen to have). I then spent half an hour mopping up the standing water and hand-wringing it all out. Not my favorite half-hour ever.

But then it was time for shopping, and by some miracle, I think I managed to get everything that I had on my list, plus a few other things that I forgot to put on the list but really needed. I have a new, fun floor lamp which will beautifully illuminate my living room as soon as I buy light bulbs for it. I have a toilet seat which doesn't make me cringe, a plunger to replace the one with cracks in the rubber part, a new Libman Tornado mop, a watch to replace the one that broke last week, a pair of capris, a skirt and three t-shirts (all of which are very boring and moderately ugly but nice and modest with little to no cleavage - we had a dress-code meeting at work last week), and a set of plastic storage drawers to go next to my newly cleaned off desk.

The floor lamp is assembled and all ready for light bulbs, the toilet seat is in place, the laundry is folded and put away, the dishes are washed, the bits of styrofoam packing from the lamp box are all vacuumed up and the bed has been scooted over to make room for the storage drawers. Now I should really do a bit of that work-work I brought home with me. But I really don't want to.

Okay, got most of a cup of coffee in me and I'm beginning to move on from omg!zombie stage. Mornings are hard, people! I felt hungover this morning and I didn't even have anything to drink last night. How unfair is that?

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I got some shopping done. The little mini-sweater I was looking at online wasn't to be found at Target and I'm not buying it online without trying it on and seeing how it looks, so I'm going back to the drawing board on that one. I did buy a bunch of knee socks, though. I've been wanting some because my lower legs get cold when I'm walking to work in low temps. I was tempted by the over the knee socks, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't work well with my somewhat less than ideally skinny legs.

I also went to Old Navy, where there were supposed to be some great clearance deals. Well, there were actually a few nice clearance deals but not on anything I actually wanted. So I walked away from there empty handed.

Then on to Best Buy, mainly just because it's there and it's my favorite store. They've rearranged the one in the Waterfront and I didn't like it much. Hard to find anything and the dvd section was much smaller than it used to be. Oh well, the lack of selection meant that once again, I was spared actually spending any money. I also looked at iPods, since mine has completely died. I really do need a new one, but by the time I got to them, I was deeply entrenched in a 'spend no money' head space. I looked at the tiny little nanos, debated the differences between ipods and itouches with the friend I was with, and walked away. I may just have to order one online, since I do need to get one if I'm going to start up running again any time soon.

Later in the evening I did some babysitting, for the same family I was with last weekend. The three-year-old was as delightful as always. Even before her parents left, she was asking when we were going to have more Meeshie days. After they left she told me she wanted to get into her pjs and watch a Steelers game with me. I told her she the game was next week, so she would be able to watch with her parents. "No," she answered, "with you!" So now I've got the little boy who insists on hockey every time I babysit him (such a sacrifice on my part) and the little girl who thinks we will always watch Steelers games together. It's hard to remember sometimes, how much I hated sports up until about two years ago, lol.

I decided my Christmas present to myself this year would be to update the decor in the bathroom a little bit. I took a leap of faith with the shower curtain - the matching hooks were super cute but there was no image of the curtain itself. It's mod dots and whales, so I think it will be okay. I also got a fairly generic, not quite matching, liner, some simple but cute hooks that should coordinate with the shower curtain (not the actual matching whale ones, because I think that would have been a bit much), and a bath mat that should also hopefully coordinate.

I don't actually have a shower curtain now, just a liner, which is hideously dark red (a remnant from when I lived in an apartment with an ugly bathroom tiled in pink/black that I did my best to coordinate with), shredded by Mal when he was a bit younger, and pretty well soap scummed. My bathmat was irrevocably soiled by Tookie in her final months and never got replaced. Even if the new things don't coordinate as well as I hope they will, they will be a huge improvement on what I currently have.

I also attempted shoe shopping today, since all of my good fall/winter walking shoes have fallen apart. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything I liked in any sort of reasonable price range at the local independent store. So next weekend it will be off to find something cheap but functional at one of the chain stores.

I was hoping to see Harry Potter this weekend, as well. Until I remembered that the local theater that got the popular Hollywood blockbuster type movies had closed down, leaving us only with the crappy theater (as in, tiny screens, uncomfortable/old seats, bad sound) that has a selection of arty/indie/foreign films that I'm never even remotely interested in. Almost a guarantee they won't be getting Harry Potter. Maybe I'll do my shopping in the Southside next weekend, and catch it there.

My sewing machine is on the way! It is right now sitting in a routing facility in Lewisberry, PA. The Fed Ex site gives an optimistic June 16 as the delivery date. Since it will probably have to go to the Fed Ex distribution place in Pgh before getting reloaded on a different truck and being actually delivered to me, I sort of doubt it will be on my porch when I get home tomorrow, but you never know. I'm just crossing my fingers that it gets here by the weekend. I'd love to have a little time to play around with it and some scrap fabric so I can learn it's idiosyncracies before diving into a major project like this dress is going to be.

I also got an email from Jo-Ann Fabric that my muslin and the other things for the shift have been put in the mail. Well, actually, Fed Ex was notified but doesn't seem to have picked them up yet. So they will probably not get here at least until the weekend or next week at the earliest.

In less fun news, boy does Mal disapprove of the diet I've got him on. He's turning into a very cranky boy indeed, and I'm learning just how sharp his teeth are. But I think he's losing a little weight, and he's starting to act a little friskier, so I guess there is good mixed in there. He's definitely not starving, but he's hungry and he doesn't like it. Poor boy, I feel bad for him but I won't let him be a fat cat any longer. And if he bites me one more time, he's going into solitary confinement. (I miss that adorable little guy with the big ears in my icon. They grow up too fast!)

To misquote Arthur Dent, I never did get the hang of Tuesdays. But Tuesday is just about done, now. Bring on Wednesday!

I usually start scouring the internet for Doctor Who around 4:30 in the afternoon, but don't usually find anything until sometimes as late as six-thirty or seven. Hope springs eternal, however, so it being a little before five, I started scouring. It's been up for over an hour already! Did it air super early today or was it just an extraordinarily speedy turn around? I don't know but I certainly won't complain.

I went shopping this morning but managed to refrain from actually spending much money. I wandered through The Exchange, but saw no dvds or cds that made me actually want to take them home. I toyed with the idea of going into the Game Stop but made myself just keep on going. I did buy a coffee and a mini-donut from Starbucks, and was going to stop at DD to buy more donuts for tomorrow morning (as a kid, Sunday morning wasn't complete without donuts) but managed to refrain there, as well. Less money spent on junk = more money for absurdly expensive but oh so pretty costume for Dragon Con.

If yesterday was for baking cookies, today was for shopping.

The boots were a bit of a luxury, but a justifiable one, I think. The only shoes I currently have are very low at the ankle and will do nothing to keep my legs protected once it really gets cold. I already have winter/snow boots, so these are just boots. Very cute knee high shoes that in conjunction with warm socks will keep my legs protected from the elements all winter long. *glee*

The coat was much more of a necessity. I've been making due with a hoodie/sweater combo that is inelegant but warm enough as long as there's no wind. But there are only a few winter days without wind. And I have a super warm, long, down-filled coat for the really cold days, but I boil in it if it's above mid-twenties, fahrenheit. One quick trip to Old Navy solved this problem and I now have a pretty, brown, knee-length double-breasted wool blend coat. It's much more of a Professional Adult coat than my usual jumble of layers of whatever I can scrounge to keep from freezing. Yay! I also picked up a matching scarf and mittens because I love matching when at all possible.

Now I am home, with shopping in tow, two full containers of cookies in the freezer, stuffs to make holiday cards with, and an empty belly. I must go eat, check on the laundry, and get started on those cards.