Okay last week at work things were busy. I'm covering for Bob while he's honeymooning a bit, we have multiple big tests going on etc so lots to keep moving. By Friday I had a lot of hours built up and took off at 2pm. I then hit costco, petco, massage, grocery store so I didn't have to do it on the weekend. This was a good plan as the weekend and this week. Yuck.

I did make a mezcalita which was tasty but not the kind I had in Mexico. Bob texted me we were having hibiscus (Jamaica) mezcalitas. So I will try this recipe once I figure out how to make jamaica concentrate. I can probably buy it locally but will have to look.

I went to bed kinda early on Friday. I was tired and my stomach had been weird. Travel always messes up my system. So I'm in the constipation/too loose cycle until things even out. I've been bad at taking all of my meds, not drinking enough water etc. My bad...and that all kinda caught up with me. Saturday I had lethargy bad, I was not hungry, I was weak. Carrying kitty litter the previous night was hard. Its never hard so I knew something was wrong. I managed to lay about and clean up the front room a bit. Mel had a big morning of cutting demos and helping wolfgrim with loading things but he helped get the front room not look like a disaster from the war (still, yes I know...this is way long). I made a hamburger/potato casserole with violife sour cream and cheese. It turned out great. Basically, layer potatoes, cooked ground beef (spice how you like) I did a roux with it a bit to thicken it up and then tossed in a few table spoons of the vegan sour cream, then some vegan cheese, then potatoes, then beef again then cheese. The issue I didn't think about is that vegan cheese has a lot of water so things were soupier than I liked so the last 10 mins in the oven I sprinkled some panko bread crumbs on top. It was very tasty. We had one tiny serving left from the 9x13 pan I made. The teenager is a teenager and has an appetite. He'd been sick earlier in the week and yeah I had some of his stuff I think at that point.

I was tired I went to bed early and we figured out I was not going to the demo when I woke up early and yucky. I had been high on the anxiety train and I was probably running a low grad fever at that point. I managed to dress and chill on the couch. Benton and I watched movies. I started with Moana and then we watched Moana 2. I liked it a lot. I loved that they meshed the musical themes from the first movie into the new songs. It was a good sequel from a storyline point as well. Then I got down into marvelness with us watching Avengers, Capt. America, Iron Man 1-3, then Thor 2, and Ragnorok. Now that was over a few days. I basically only managed a load of laundry per day (not put away) and making a meal on Sat/Sunday. I didn't realize I was running a low grade fever until I woke up on Monday and then got the chills so bad I went back to bed and had mel bring me hot water bottles to get me warmed back up. I thought Id get warmed up and head back to my home office for work and I woke up 4+ hours later boiling and exhausted.

So yeah Monday was a blur and Tuesday I just didn't even bother with work, though I felt better. I managed to get more laundry done (war laundry almost complete) and washed our bedding since I'd been rotting in there for days. That was nice. In between things I've been reading some comfort fic and I put together two small lego sets for my office. The Flower Trellis and the Plum Blossom. The first was a present from Becca and Rob for Xmas and its super neat and the Plum Blossoms I bought in Texas on the way back from Mexico. The trellis is made to hang on the wall which I will do in my office at work and the plum blossoms will go next to my real plant. I need to see whose other botanical set is...all the legos got set in the brewery and I'm not sure who got all the small plants I think that was Mel. But wonderful sets to build. Good set of pieces and not too hard.

I also started watching Dead Boy Detectives and I quite like it even though NG is mildly involved. I'm glad there is continuity with Death.

It sounds like a I did too much while sick but if I moved once per hour to change out a load and then dozed the next hour its not too much I don't think. I'm better but tired. I'm WFH today and maybe tomorrow since I get on a plane on Friday for San Jose for West Crown. I'm excited and its gonna be weird solo traveling to an SCA event. But I will manage and check my final free bag on Southwest. Damn them.

What's In a Name (1411 words) by ianuk
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Bruce Banner, James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Hulk (Marvel)
Additional Tags: NOT A:AOU Compliant, not ca:cw compliant, Helpful JARVIS
Summary:

What happens when a helpful AI eavesdrops on an Avengers phone call and then calls that Avenger on a subtle but well played practical joke? Hilarity ensues.

I needed to do some work this weekend and I didn't. I could not even think of facing the spreadsheet of doom after realizing that I have 3 companies measuring the same hardware and we are all using a differnt formula to solve a circle.  Sighs.  Least Squares versus Max Inscribed versus Min Circumscribed and now I need to fix the data to account for that and I'm not sure I can do that without remeasuring everything.  Sighs.  So yeah, didn't work.

Friday we cleaned house and then headed to the Apple store to get mel's phone fixed and me to get mine looked at.  His screen replacement was ready the next day and the my issue was more interesting.  My battery is expanding which is causing the screen and home button to not work.  My phone was NOT part of the battery recall but this is telling me is should have been.  At this time I'm out of warranty but AT&T had a huge discount for me 1/2 off a new 6S.  So I ordered it and it will be arriving shortly.  Got home via Little Ceasears and we had game night.

Not the most productive game night for our D&D group but man was it fun.  The comments were flying and the live tweeting was precious.

Saturday I was slow to get things done around the house. I did manage to get the studio cleanup started, dinner made and then after Ben was abed I pulled yarns and got things wound for Xmas knitting.  Sheesh do I have a lot to do.  That is okay. Handmade versus store bought is better IMHO and I'm going to try it this year.  We also finished up watching Season 2 of Arrow.  Wow. lots of things I didn't expect.  And really, John Barrowman eats up his screen time.  So nice.  Course I keep expecting Dresden to through up a fireball or something but he's just a mudane cop in this.

Sunday I was more productive and get up and worked out the shopping list.  Got groceries with Ben.  He was good until I got the cart stuck between some cars and he walked into traffic.  Sighs. All was okay but man that was scarey and I was not pleased cause he didn't listen to me to stop at a car, he just mosied to try to get to our car.  Sighs.  Got home, got groceries put away, dinner on and then I sat and read for a while while I fought with the washing machine.  SIghs.  The studio is now ready for sewing.  I have handwash drying in there now but I will get things going this week to get the Benton Sewing done. He has 1 pair of pants and a Coat left for Southern so completely doable.

I highly recommend anything by the folks who wrote Tales from the Tower including this AU of their own universe which was precious. Somewhere They Can't Find Me.  Really good.

Sunday AM was also annoying cause I got bit to crap by mosquitos while I was sleeping. My left arm (Triceps ow!) is bit to hell, hot and itchy.

We started watching Season one of Flash and will be bouncing back and forth between it and season 3 of Arrow for a bit.

Freedom! 90'

I won't let you down, I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound, it's the one good thing that I've got
I won't let you down, so please don't give me up
Because I would really, really love to stick around oh yeah

Heaven knows I was just a young boy
Didn't know what I wanted to be
I was every little hungry schoolgirls pride and joy
And I guess it was enough for me

To win the race, a prettier face
Brand new clothes and a big fat place on your rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same
No way think I'm gonna get me some happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I told you so
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone else I've got to be

Take back your picture in a frame
Take back your singing in the rain
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now, is take these lies
And make them true somehow
All we have to see is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me, yeah, yeah

Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Heaven knows we sure had some fun boy
What a kick just a buddy and me
We had every big-shot good time band on the run boy
We were living in a fantasy

We won the race, got out of the place
I went back home got a brand new face for the boys on MTV
But today the way I play the game has got to change, oh yeah
Now I'm gonna get myself happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I stopped the show
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone I forgot to be

Take back your picture in a frame
Don't think that I'll be back again
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now, is take these lies
And make them true somehow
All we have to see is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me, yeah, yeah

Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Well it looks like the road to heaven
But it feels like the road to hell
When I knew which side my bread was buttered
I took the knife as well

Posing for another picture, everybody's got to sell
But when you shake your ass, they notice fast
And some mistakes were build to last

That's what you get, that's what you get
That's what you get, I say that's what you get
I say that's what you get for changing your mind
That's what you get for changing your mind

That's what you get, that's what you get
And after all this time
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now, is take these lies
And make them true somehow
All we have to see is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me, yeah, yeah

Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom, freedom, freedom
You've gotta give for what you take, yeah

You gotta give for what, give for what, give
May not be what you want from me
Just the way it's got to be, lose the face now
I've got to give for what, give for what

Songwriters
LAW, SIMON/ROMEO, BERESFORD (JAZZY B)/WHEELER, CARON / HOOPER, NELLIE/MICHAEL, GEORGE

Read more: George Michael - Freedom '90 Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Made a faboo carbonara-esqe dish with squash, peppers and bacon. My cheese sauce curdled but meh, it tasted good. I was able to get almost all of the dishes done before dinner and that made the evening good. I still took an hour to relax after Benton went to bed just to relax...I just had been going strong all day needed the recovery period. Got to cutting out the baroness lining and then went and pinned up every seam I was finishing on the yukata to sew those today. I'm not finishing every seam completely. Its an undergarment and its cotton and already serged I may put in some tack stitches to keep layers in place but meh, its not museum work, its a costume, my laurel tendancies can shove it. I finished up the hem pinning just as mel got home from Utah. He was tired and got a beer and we both dinked around on our phone while watching Dirty Jobs...gods I love that show..why did they stop making it?

Headed to shower and bed just after 1030 and then read for a bit.

If you want some hot pr0n reading in the Mystrade universe then go read Anthea's Assignments. Holy heck. (fans self)

The To Do List:
( Read more... )

I think I have a journal post on my other computer that I never finished or started or something. The last few weeks have been nothing but working very long hours and being so brain drained all I want to do is read something not technical, preferrably fluffy and well written. My cosplay stuff is coming along but not at the pace I wanted but at least progress has been made. lferion helped me pattern out a 1950s dress and we will turn the dress into Hawkeye dress that will be lovely for tooling around the convention with scribe_ari in her Ironman dress and I will get the planned Star Wars dress too. I'm currently in the middle of making a crinoline for the dresses and need to eff with my sewing machine to make it not sew well so I can use it machine baste. I'm not going to hand baste 17.5 yards of tool...nope.

Other things going on...my ears are still not better and a return to the doctor showed more fluid build up. We are trying a whole new variety of painkillers and allergy meds to see if we can get the inflammation down in my head to allow my eustatian tubes to drain so I can hear clearly. Its partially working but man I hate taking so many pills.

Book reading I finished Green Boy which was #11 for the year and am now in Victory also by Susan Cooper. I think after this I will get back into the Honor-verse and pick up a few other books from Seanan Macguire. I have been reading entirely too much fan fic but seriously, my brain is goo by the time I get home. I have processed so much eningeering paperwork of late that speaking is almost hard at the end of the day. I almost cried at knit night when Vicky (owner of Grandma's) wanted me to tech something out when I was just DONE for the day. But the goals are in sight with work and we've been doing good and will most probably hit our deadlines. Also got some good compliments on things at my mid year review but again have to really work on the soft skills and stop being the "scary engineer" and be the "likeable soon to be manager engineer". Sighs. Being passionate about something and not scary people is hard for me...sighs.

Other weird things and maybe its my way of coping is I have story ideas from stuff I wrote in HIGH SCHOOL that keeps hitting my head. It also keeps reminding me of the co-writer of some of that and I keep getting daily reminders of them and its weird. Guys been dead a long time now and why there are still reminders its weird. Probably the need for my creative mind to get back into gear but I'm scared to see what I blow the dust off of...I'm not even sure I have soft copy of that any more on media I can read. Will have to check the floppies. Just weird.

My mother has now planned her funeral and was not creeped out that I want to have diamonds made with some of her ashes. Since the technology became available I've been interested...was glad she thought that was neat too.

Benton is basically potty trained now and refusing to wear a pull up at night. He's even gotten up in the middle of the night to poop which is something. Its really nice I have to say. Additionally he's also liking to take showers versus baths which is easy to do. Plus with my ear, not having to bend down like that is good. He's doing okay at school and is napping almost regularly there which is nice but we can't get him to do it at home. Oh well. He's growing again it seems and you see the huge difference since a few months ago. We went to court night at the park last week and people couldn't believe how all he was.

Mel's birthday was a few weeks ago and we had a household/scriptorium party for him full of games and food and fun. It was all ages and it was a very good time. We also had a nice time at brennabe and Don's wedding reception. Benton made me draw TMNT drawings for him to color as a gift. My first fan art!

Other than that I've been knitting a bit and working on a blanket for Anya's boy and have plans for Theresa's new baby's toy too. Just not enough time it seems.

We also got a new bed over the weekend. Its a Serta Icomfort memory foam mattress and OMG comfy. I've stopped having to use extra pillows for my legs...so nice. Its also way thicker than the old futon was so I'm probably going to have to shop for new sheet soon.

I have not been able to get back to the gym due to the ears...I get dizzy when I bend weird and I almost passed out last time I tried so taking it easy but watching what I'm eating pretty closely to good results. I did manage to get in a bike ride that is promising for me and I had no issues with dizziness there so that was good. The Road Boars are going to be trying to do Saturday rides for the next while which will be good. I need to get back in the saddle more and having a planned activity with people is good. Solo when its hot and way to early to be up on a weekend is not fun.

So, this week is lots of work and hopefully finishing my crinoline and getting the two dresses sewn and down to finish work so the following weekend we can pattern out my Kabuki kimono and be good. Then it will be working on the Victorian. Oof and the accessories. Lots to do.

Fanfic recommendations:

Bond-verse : Ordinary Numbers

Sherlock specifically Mystrade Fic:
1) Human Remains. A very slow build fic with angst and you really need to be caught up on the show. Which I finally did. WIP.

2) 365 Days of Mystrade. Two writers basically doing a fic a day..mostly a disjointed in time verse and really fun. WIP.

Plus I've been reading other stuff and as that finishes I'll post here.

The last few weeks have been projects, projects, projects and nothing for me which makes it even more draining. I've lots a lot of sleep to these projects and mel's that even though I can see the end (sort of) in sight its hard none the less. I've been feeling very drained from all of the sickness in the house and I realized, rather esoterically that maybe I've been making too much stuff...putting too much of myself in things and its eating away at me bit by bit.

The scroll everyone will see on Saturday but the blanket most folks won't see unless the parents bring it out to events. Maestra Tatiana (Melissa) and her hubby Mike are expecting a boy in mid-November and I had an idea for a blanket and then went with it. Its not designed by me but I made some modifications and chose the colors to be bright and strong and not your average baby blanket. Its based on a quilt pattern and is 112 pieces crocheted all together. The finish work took me many late nights for over a week to accomplish and I was down to the wire on getting it blocked and having the acrylic yarn set but I was so happy with it. Here is a quick pic of it.
( Blanket! )

After being strung out on asthma meds for the last few days and staying up to finish it I was so toasted by the time the shower came around yesterday. So, I realized that today I needed to UNMAKE things. Now to unmake something does not mean to destroy it...rather get it back to where it started or get it out of the state of chaos its been in. I took time today to clean, to sweep, to put away to tidy and to organize multiple spaces in the house. The studio is usable (minus me wrapping xmas gifts), Benton's room is in top shape, the kitchen it clean and mostly tidy. The front room isn't too bad, still cluttered more than I like and in need of a good dusting but better. The vacuum's been run and things just look more tidy. I frogged two shawls. One of them I will start again with now a better understanding of the pattern. The other I will do the pattern in a larger yarn and larger hook but I UNMADE them and now they are just potential energy ready to start swinging in motion or start the build up to something greater. I swept the porch clean and got a circled candle burning to drive things out of the house. Get the chaos to settled and get back in line. Its cathartic, its zen, its necessary. Even though I'm now aching to make something I'm waiting until tomorrow. There are other things that are due that need my attention before I dive into my now stocked with two projects bag.

I've also been reading. I finished a 145k+ fan fic which I linked on my fic filter. I also finished #20 Small Favor which was completely new to me it seemed. I know I read it when it came out but I had completely forgotten things and when I've now read the most recent books in the series again...damn it Jim! You so set us up...OMG! Everything is obvious in the webs you wove! AGH!!! Thank you. Now I'm in Turn Coat and reading other fic.

So realize that if you keep putting your energy into making things you also have to unmake them to keep yourself sane. Mel and I sat and talked out next projects and how it will make the house better and easier and that made me happy. Keep moving forward.