The time after Estrella and now has been marred by sickness, over time and projects. Plus Ben's birthday and his spring break. I made some things....I've been working on my birthday socks and am almost to the toe decreases on the second sock. I made banners for TE Sym and Magdalen for stepping down as B&B. I've done a lot of calligraphy for SCA things. I applied to a program management training program and got accepted. I have pushed a mountain load of virtual paperwork and by June 15th I will be the lead on my program since my boss is retiring. Yeah, there is a lot there.

Pictures make things easier to understand.....

The Banners...


Ben's Bday...


I also bought myself a new thing for my bday...I'm going full hipster. I got a new turntable...I've been lacking one for almost 20 years. I'm getting a new tattoo and I'm getting more piercings....very hipster.



All of the projects and sickness means that my gym time has been utterly lacking but I made it back on Monday and I'm going today and dammit I'm being good on eating etc. The month of suck gave me 5 pounds back and I'm not happy about that. Time to get back to things...limit my beer, cause really that is my big weakness and I was over indulging....a lot.

Thursday:
Thursday was crazy working and then leaving early to get Ben for his group therapy appointment. We were 30mins early so that meant we headed to Fabrics that Go around the corner. I got a pretty veil for me and a gift one for Baroness Brighed for her stepping down on Saturday. I got some neat sun batik for Benton and a really nice red black and white plaid. Got done and headed back to his appointment. Ben did fall in absolute love with a soft leopard print that if it hadn't been $30+ per yard I would have gotten him some.



So Thursday is group therapy day and she has 2 sessions, younger boys and older boys. The older boys start coming in while the little guys are in session. I need to bring headphones and to sit against the wall cause boy are they loud and disruptive while I was working on drawings. We headed to Beyond Bread for dinner where Benton ate his fill. And then home for bed by 8pm. Mel's flight had been delayed and delayed and finally touched down about 1030pm and he was home by 11pm. He was tired but he got me presents of a double decker bus coffee cup and the brit version of The Cursed Child. Ben got a Brit Lion, a GB Olympics Team t-shirt and a Gruffolo book.

While I was waiting for Mel to get home I finished the cyber dread falls for the convention. Though I won't be wearing the one set with the Lolita...danabren is right...it looks like a jelly fish.



I also worked on Socks this weekend. I was inspired by finishing the Slytherin socks and pulled out Mel's Caution Socks and put a cable down the center which I'm liking.


And I cast on 2 pairs for myself since my second set of Signature sock needles arrived. I am making a rainbow/black striped ones and a pretty sparkly set.





Friday was busy with errands, the van driverside window mechanism breaking (thank you Jack Furriers for fixing it fast!) and my hair cut/color and errands before we picked Ben up for his followup appointment about his lungs. He got put on Singluar to help with the asthma and allergies. Additionally, we made the followup appointment to get him eval'd for ADHD meds. This is a preemptive strike since the school already hit him with a referral, he gets 3 before he is suspended. Sighs. Ben did not have a good day, he hadn't the day before so when we got home and I made dinner of lamb chops, mel took all of his toys out of his room. He was not happy about that but tough cookies. He went to bed whiny but well fed. He really, really likes lamb chops. I worked on the socks friday night. I was just not into starting anything else. Though I did get to sewing the crown under dress seams so I could have hand work the next day.

Saturday we got going for Mon's Investiture. Mel was very out of it. The jet lag was catching up fiercely but he was maintaining being awake etc. Ben did good during the day playing with Mason and keeping out of trouble. I sat at the back corner of the event and let it pass by while I sewed and chatted with Ari, Jules and various other folks. I got half way through the dress during the event before I called a time to go home cause I was toast. That site makes my allergies really bad. Got home, had leftovers and a whiny kiddo. Mel didn't even get through dinner before he passed out. Ben went to bed and then had screaming terror fears from stuff he over heard on the playground. It was lots of cuddling, snuggles and signing "My Favorite Things" to get his mind off of the scary things. Sighs.

I sat and finished the dress and knit on socks until late. My left tear duct in my eye was very swollen so I took some benadryl and hot compressed it. Which means I woke up horribly drugged out. Sighs. I got coffee and breakfast before I started to feel better and then I avoided paid work to clean up my studio from the crazy cosplay frenzy for the crazy crown frenzy, cleaned up the front room from the detritus of the previous days event and got my test fabrics out for Choli sunday building with Ari.

I managed to get the neckline cut/ pinned and machine sewn with the bound edge machine sewn ready for the hand stitching on the turn as well as the racing stripes on the sleeves before I headed for errands then to Ari's. I did not find what I wanted at Kohl's but I did hit a jewelry sale (SHINY!). Then we sat and got things worked out for my choli/vest/bolero patterning. Yay! I now have a plan. My goals are Tuesday, finish the under dress for crown, Wednesday Finish the over dress for Crown, Thursday night cut out the choli/Vest/bolero and maybe sew but I'm not guaranteeing it. I may drag the sewing machine with to sew on Friday/Saturday nights but not sure. I hope to get the choli done at least before we leave. But we shall see. I may just stay up way late the next few nights and get things done. We shall see.

( To Do List )

Work was work and I could only get a few things done in the 6 hours I was there. Got out on time to head to the school for the meeting. The meeting was good but not quite what we had hoped it would be but it was good. (more on a different post).

Got home and the kiddos were good and bewilde was watercolor painting. I got changed and then made dinner for all of us and then we cleaned house. Having kiddos help was good and we were ready for scribble. I have a few more calligs to get done in the next week for things and we are still waiting for some events to get filled out through the end of the reign but we are making sure that nothing is due for us before D*C that isn't done now. All good.

Got Poe hooked on Post Modern Jukebox and then it was bed. I was exhausted but felt good about the day.

This morning since I didn't need to bake anything, btw, the Alton Brown's Blueberry Buckle is faboo and you need to make some. Just sayin; I sat and drank my coffee and had breakfast (buckle) and started my day slow. I think tomorrow I will do a bit of spinning.

Anyhoo, the morning after that has been busy with work stuff, school faxes and issues on my old program I'm making commentary on.

Tonight will be working on the Lolita. I need to futz with the sleeves, add more flounces and cut and bind trims. Plus work out the under chemise. We shall see how productive I am. I'm tired but every little bit helps.

This last weekend we scurried and cleaned and made the house and porch party ready. The floors have needed a good scrubbing for quite some time and I really need to do it more than I do. Course that can be said for most of the house. Le sigh. But I've really been trying to make a conscious effort to help on things and its showing a bit.

Had a nice weekend and Jessie was visiting. He got diagnosed with colon cancer which was a surprise and they do surgery next week. It looks promising that its only the one tumor but his Wagner's disease makes it so he can't have contrast in scans so see if its spread further than the small tumor. We shall see. We spent most of Saturday chatting.

Sunday was the household meeting and we got up and cleaned a lot. I had planned on doing most of it on Friday (too many errands and hella tired) and Saturday was with Jess but we did okay.

We made pork ribs and a small rack of lamb for the not pork folks and the household brought the rest of the sides. We had fun tag teaming the smoked ribs on the grill between mel and I. He'd smoked 8 full racks of ribs and I was grilling them to temp and he was cutting and serving. The kids were having a fun time running around and it was awesome to see how big the porch was and how it fit people nicely.




And we took a pick later in the evening to show how the kitchen stuff was setup on the side and how roomy it all was.



Friday we also had Ben's hearing fully tested at the hospital. He's good but he's got my ear wax thing and allergy thing. Good to know that he has my small ear canals.

Monday I hit the gym for the first time in a very long time. My allergies have been crazy and I've sulphured myself twice but I managed. Sore today but will head back. I've also been really buckling down on what I eat and trying very hard to not have a beer or pig out on sweets.

Work is going okay. I got into the Emotional Intelligence class I've been wanting to take for years. The first class wasn't too tramatic but the self assessment was not so much enlightening but shows I really need this class. I hope the next few sessions really teach me things on how to cope.

Crazy weird week.

My interview for the fellowship thing at work was Monday and was very short (15 mins).  It was odd. but I guess I had made it that far. They had 200 applicants that they down selected to interview 45-50 and now downselect to the 15 for the program. HR was there which was again odd but this is for career growth so its not surprising but it was?  The questions were pretty basic I think. Talk about something technical that you did, what you hope to get out of the program etc.  It was just short....I kinda expected more.  But its done and now I wait to see if I made it.  If I didn't well at least I know I put an effort in and did it versus letting the opportunity pass me by.

I've hit the gym once this week...monday I figured I wouldn't have time but I was tired too. I was up way too late on Sunday night and mel has a bit of a cold so he's snoring and won't stop and then Ben woke up screaming about a bloody nose at 4 am. I think I got 3.5 hours of sleep. But at least I looked good and professional. Been trying to step the clothing game up. With the weather in the high 80s to 90s it was cute skirts and clothes and I need to get more summer weight style shirts and light weight sweathers/shrugs.

The department is having a heck of a time replacing me and need me to fully write out all of the stuff I do.  The first few applicants were not ideal.  Well, that is good, I'm hard to replace. :)

No word quite yet on my transition but they need a warm body before I can move. Plus I have one large task to finish.

Other than that...I'm ready to be done with work and getting ready over the weekend and monday for estrella. I took both the monday before and the monday after it off for my sanity.  Its so nice.  Got a lot to do but I have time to take my time, think things through and make sure I have everything for the 45 people we are feeding/housing. Eep!

We have the work for the new porches starting when we get back from Estrella. We need to clean the porches off and chuck everything old in the yard.  So I know we will be busy when we get back.

I'm also waiting for the final quote on the cooler replacement from the 3rd company.  Soon we will have awesomeness at the house.  We got the new patio door last week and its so nice.

All of last week I've had a linger...not sure...cold, not really just tired and had a bit of a sore throat off and on and some snuffles.  I had hoped to kick it this weekend....and that doesn't seem to work I guess. I'm to the point were I'm going to stop taking it "easy" and just hit the gym etc.

Friday night we were all tired.  I hit bed at 930 and slept really well. I was still pretty groggy when I awoke on Saturday and slowly got ready for the tournament. Once drugs and coffee kicked in I did okay. Benton was awesome at the event and listened well and we hit the library to get some books and just in general had a good time.  Ivan was Sir Sable and everyone was suprised he could be an asshole.  Honestly, people don't liv with him. He's a jerk a lot of the time. He's just sublte about it.  Will was the rapier sable and Ceyln was the youth sable so we changed the household name to Rottenheim cause yes, we were rotten. LOL.    Got home after hitting up Frost for gelato and relaxed into the evening.  I made lamb chops, edamame and couscous with a really nice dill yogurt sauce.  I've never cooked lamb but I hit it with a bit of garlic and cooked it to medium rare.  So tasty.  Benton loved it. Mel was exstatic about it and just purred with happiness about it. I'll have to make it that way again.  We are saving the bones to make stock but are currently stuck on what you use lamb stock for....ideas?

My goals for the weekend were to get laundry done, work on my projects and try to get better.  I did pretty good with that though I didn't get my studio any better but I put more stuff away and figured out how to get Ben to clean his room with a timing game and the Visual Timer.  He now understands that in small increments (10 mins each) we set up to do tasks in the 10 min section. It worked really well and we even got his laundry put away nicely.

My goals this week are to do a bunch of calligraphy and finish mel's sock. I got through the heel and gusset yesterday and now am in the foot.  I also spent too much time play Free Flow but I'm in the way higher levels having fun.  We also finished up watchign Jonny Quest Season 1 (1964) and still love it.  We also found that Kim Possible is on youtube boot legged but I did order the Season 1 and 2.  We will now be going through the Batman Animated Series with Ben.  Then maybe on to Justice League and Teen Titans.

Mel did get the bottle openers out to people and we got text messages of people hanging them up and putting them right to use.  Its awesome. Plus that is projects out of his shop.  He made Ben's bed this past weekend for camping and he needs to finish it this week.

I have to say the weather last night was crazy.  The airport had 47 mph winds. Oof.  The rain was a lot though the gauges only stated 1/3 of an inch. Weird. it sounded like a lot more.

Work this week is about finishing things up and kicking ass at the gym.

since the tummy sick of a few weeks ago I've still not felt well.  Things just aren't right and well at Southern I was off all event.

Southern was in general good. We had tons of folks on setup day and that was great.  The new site (I guess only for this year) was nice which was suprising. Though we need to have court way earlier if we do it there since its all outdoors and no light/sound.

I managed to burn the fuck out of my fingers on my left hand cooking dinner on Friday. I knew the knurl on the pot handle was hot but I grabbed it anyway. I managed to cook the rest of dinner with my left hand holding an icecube in a wash cloth.  It looks healed now but typing...ow. and i don't have really good feeling on the fingers either.  I had blisters that were large and in charge.

I did not fight cause I felt weird on Saturday and well, the hand wouldn't have been able to hold a sword.  Sunday I woke up and was awful. I'd spent every hour since 1 am up for abit and hitting the privy and I was tired, hurting and sick.  I managed to get the inside of teh tent packed and Benton helping with things and us loaded into the car while the rain was starting and the rest of CAMP was coming down.  Much thanks to my household for tearing things down well and quickly. We were all home by 3pm. I was home by 1230 or so.  Stopped and Benton got his very first Happy Meal cause I new I had no food at the house and it was right at the turn on to the interstate. He enjoyed it and snarfed all of it.  Got home and got him into a much needed bath and I took a shower while he was soaking. THen I bundled up on the couch and we watch Avengers Assemble Cartoon until Mel came home. I then slept in my bed for a few hours. Mel was awesome adn put things away (not everything but food etc).  I was happy to snuggle up and be warm.  I went to bed early and slept much better than I had but woke up with stomach cramping again. I stayed in bed until 7am and then got Ben up and ready for school. I got back and crawled under the blankets on the couch before getting back into bed a few hours later.

I read and slept my Monday away and here we are.  Not great, not special but I'm here.

Work front, I had a mini interview for a new job.  So we shall see where that goes.  My plan is to have things settled by the time Estrella rolls around.

A stomach flu of very nastyness hit the Kemp household with Benton first puking on my shoes on Tuesday.  Mel got hit with it on Friday and I came down with it this past monday. I'm finally back at work and only runnign on about 75% so yeah.  it was the worst I'd been sick in quiet some time

Dragon's Horde was, okay.  Ben had a great time but there really was not enough activities to need the two days and I was so exhausted and mel was still sick that our anniversary was a bit lackluster but we still went out to dinner at Bj's for a good time.

I've been knitting and mostly reading once I got sick.

I've started and finished 3 books.  Half off Ragnorok and Pocket Apocolypse by Seanan Macguire. Very campy and fun novels that make you question who the monsters really are.  Next was Night Broken by Patricia Briggs.  Seriously, that women rights things I can't put down. Sighs.  Love the world as always. So I think that was books 7,8 and 9 for the year.  Sighs. So sad.  Course I could add up my fanfic reading total and probably easily hit 50 books. Oh, well.

I now have started Hell Bent by Devon Monk (#10 for the year) which is in the same place as teh Allie Beckstrom novels and stare Shame Flinn and Terric Collins of those novels.  Shame is a darker, snarkier Spike and Terric...not sure about him yet.  Again, Devon has such an interesting world setup that I can't help but keep reading.

Other than that...yeah.  I'm just trying to stay afloat.

Work is still sucky but we are all in the midst of suck and working as a team to make it better. I figured some cool things out and I have a spreadsheet to save our little chunk of the world.  I know, lame, spreadsheet foo made me excited. I'm an engineer, deal!

Willa and I entered our failed viking glass furnace and it did very well. We won our category, though we were the only entry. We did receive a 55/60 for points so I think we would have won anyway even against other competitors so that was cool.  The organization this year was a bit weird and lists of winners had errors etc but in the end I think it was a successful competition. I judged the championship and that went well too.

In other crafty news, I finished the purple socks.


I have also been working on my "not bunnies" shawl and ran out of yarn.  Both Mel and I thought I had two balls but nope. So I pulled some left over cascade 220 out of my stash and its matching colors pretty good after a few rows.


Ben's been having better days.  We had him assessed by the school district and their only comments were he was high energy and bright.  But at least we know there is nothing wrong we hadn't already known.  Not that being high energy is wrong but we have to redirect it.

I started looking my planned to make for Xmas and seriously flipped out.  So, I guess I need to get myself organized and working on stuff. This weekend will be studio cleaning, sewing for Ben for Southern and winding yarn and planning projects. I also need to get rid of the two old carseats and get those sold as well as the stroller. Then that stuff is out of teh house.

I'm getting my fall enuii and depression.  I'm not sure what it is about this time of year but man I always feel like crap.  Add that to the I've been so tired, so sick or so busy to make it to the gym well, I'm sure that is not helping.  Next week is further screwed up since I'll have the boy at Theresa's due to school being out for Fall Break so well, we shall see.  Just frustrating cause I feel like this is all out of my control but then I realize it is in my control and its hard to take the reins to fix it.  Thus the depression lying.  Oh well. The show must go on.

My mantra will be to watch what I'm eating better. Limit the alcohol and make stuff.  I always feel better when I make things and if I can crank out some of these small projects I will feel accomplished and not so stuck in a ever ending loop of work.

Still trying to finish the treatise on Engineering in America and I started in an InCryptid novel by Seanan Macquire.  I got a load of books from Mughi last weekend to plow through.  Plus I'm also hit by a plunnie about grumpy cat, Bucky and Coulson.  Yeah.  crazy but it will get done in the wee hours this weekend I think. Its gonna be short and fluffy.  So crank it out and accomplish somethng to get it the eff out of my head.

It was inspired by this fic Wow, That's one Grumpy Cat... and the shirt I'm wearing today.  Silly but funny. I need that.

Friday work was, well work. My workout did not happen. I was still feeling the effects of the migraine from Wednesday and felt "off" and my balance was a little weird so I got off of work and then ended up buying a mini-van. Yeah. I bought it after seeing it...well, seeing 3. Basically 3 of them, same model, same model year, same options almost the same mileage and the same price so I picked Red. Drove home on the test drive, mel was happy with the color since he had assumed red = burgundy and its not...its Hrafn Red. I saved about $12k buying used.



I'll be selling the Xterra privately. They only offered me $500 for it and I know I can get double that. Its not in great condition but it will be good for a high schooler to drive.

Got home with the van with barely enough time to load family into the van (the Fit was at the dealership, mel had to sign papers on Saturday) and get to Ed's for Cloak night. Unlike the last go around we had lots of people to work on the raven's themselves. I taught a bunch of folks to chain stitch and realized I needed dinner. Husband and Wander were awesome to get me dinner (sonic but I'm not complaining). Stayed till almost 10pm and Benton was still running around.

Willa was great and came over early on Saturday AM to help get cupcakes frosted and load the cooler and watch Ben while I hit the shower and mel was in the shop. We had a great party for him and the kids had a great time. He made out like a bandit on Legos. Seriously, everyone was uber generous and I'm blown away. Pictures are in this album Ben's Bday and if you can't see it...sorry, friends and family only. The cupcakes turned out great though...




Got done with the party and headed back home to unload and chat with Jost and Christy before heading to the car dealership. There are two things they need to fix on the van (middle light inside not turning on and the vent windows not working) which they are paying for to fix on Friday. After that we got home and had an early dinner before heading out to Wrestling for High Impact folks. It was Ben's first time and the bad guys won the night. Which was epic.

We got home late and again Ben was up way past his bed time. Sunday morning dawned and we all started getting ready for the event and Ben was resistant. He was tired and finally just stated "I don't want to go to the event" and we talked and he realized he just wanted some quiet Lego time before we had to go to a bday party for one of his friends and a playdate with Inara. We played legos and watched Star Wars and then headed to Chuck E. Cheese. Wow, that place is loud and chaotic and I'm really glad Mel wasn't in charge of going. I admit I was as peopled out as the kiddo that morning and the utter onslaught of the place tweeked me a bit. But Ryker's parents were awesome and then Benton and I went to play games and I forgot how good I am at getting tickets in arcades. There was a Namco Pirate Zombie game that Ben and I had a great deal of fun with and shooting ducks with water was fun too. We headed to target afterwards to get some clothes for Ben with his bday money and got a skylander too.

Got home just in time for Inara to come over and the two of them played while I cleaned up the house. That was cathartic. Plus the kids were great. I got pizza for dinner cause I'm lame but it was worth it for mel's face when he walked in exhausted from the tourney (he won!) and there was hot food with plenty of calories. We got the kids into the tub and the antics were hilarious and then bedtime was a bit chaotic but good. We have so many blackmail pictures for their teen years.

Work has been busy...I'm not caught up but well, I cope. The gym was tiring and my left knee had tightened over the weekend and made squats hard. I had to ice it when I got home which was after a trip to costco where I almost made a mess of the van. I was headed back to it with my cart when I looked down in the twilight to see my black athletic pants have a big streak of white. It was flour and the bag had a tear. If I hadn't noticed I'd have covered the black interior of my new to me van in flour. Headed back in, showed the folks and they ran quick to get me another bag without a tear.

Scribble was good and I got Arsenda's laurel scroll layout planned and got about halfway done with the design for one of the borders. I will have to work hard over the weekend to get the designs ready to go on paper so we can start painting.

Looking forward to the gym tonight cause its arm day.