Friday, July 31, 2015

New laptop up and running.

The new laptop is simply another Acer Aspire, ordered through Amazon.  It's a lot thinner and lighter than my old one (which is a bit under five years old, and purchased to replace a netbook whose wireless card was going).  It's a much better built machine out of the box than the older Aspire was.  The way the keyboard's made, I'm less likely to end up with crumbs under the keys, blocking utility.  It's a gorgeous, dark red that will be impossible to confuse with Odysseus's computer. 

One of the wonderful things about working for a university is the availability of Microsoft Office for faculty download and use onto home machines.  I had Office 2010 on the old laptop, and I've got 2013 (Office 365) on the new one, thanks to my university.  Simple, easy, and more programs than I really need.*

I do like the new version of Word.  Makes navigation through a multi-part document really stupid simple--just click on the header on the left, and it takes you to the chapter you left off writing on. 

My documents and stuff just got dumped into the machine's My Documents.  All of my music, my pictures (baby pics, wedding pics, etc.), the videos of the kids we've taken...all of it.  All jumbled together, but I think it's all there.  It's gonna take some organizing, but I'll have the rest of the evening tonight, and tomorrow to get that done.

Guess I best get started, then. 

*All I really use is Word, OneNote, and Excell (at the end of semester, when I'm downloading the gradebooks from the course site).

Thursday, July 30, 2015

I think Rand Paul might have gotten my vote next November.

He's busting ass to defund Planned Parenthood.  Yes, there are other senators in on it, and lots of representatives (though, oddly enough, no Democrats).  But Paul is the one running for President. 

He's someone I can hold my nose and vote for. 

Especially on this particular issue (which has been compounded and made worse by this).

Edmund Burke was right.  And, for the most part (and probably due to a fuckton of blackmail), many good men have been recently either doing nothing or siding with evil.

WTF!!!

I'm sure my readers have heard about the senseless, horrible murder of Cecil the Lion by a ball-less American dentist* on a canned safari hunt.  I mean, I actively avoid the news and headlines, and I've heard of it.

What I want to know is how many of you had heard of the second video of Planned Parenthood "leaders" negotiating the sale of "tissue"?  Or that Planned Parenthood is so freaked out by an honest representation of their own sheer evil that they've gone to court to acquire a gag order to prevent the release of more videos?


There is something seriously wrong with a good number of the people of this nation.  And even worse wrong with the media.

*Not my opinion.  The opinions of those threatening to kill, stuff, and mount said dentist.  I couldn't care less than I do about somebody with more money than sense paying to have big game brought to them to shoot.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Update on computer issues

Good news: I've ordered a new computer which should arrive sometime on Friday.  It's a newer version of the exact same model as my old one, with the same OS, so it shouldn't take much getting used to.  It's also the same model as Odysseus's, so I ordered one that there will be no danger of confusing with his.

More good news: I managed to keep my laptop up and alive long enough to change the password to my blog, and Odysseus has made me a short-term loan of his laptop, so I can do a little bit here and there.  

Little bit more good news: I can get Office through my job at MSSU, so I should be okay once I get everything set up, and transferred over.

The last of the good news: it was a hundred dollars less than I was assuming it would be, and ordered with Amazon Prime, so there's no sales tax, and shipping is the free two day shipping.  In other words, I didn't need to spend near as much as I was afraid I would.

Bad news: the breaking-down laptop is resisting moving all of my data.  I've gotten some of the most vital moved, but nowhere near all.  Granted, I don't need all of it, and will likely winnow out old shit that isn't needed any longer once I manage to get it moved onto my new laptop.  Unfortunately, I lost something like four or five hundred words of my current project (tentative title: The Schrodinger Paradox) through what the dying laptop is doing. 

Worse news: what the old laptop is doing is randomly turning itself off.  Not shutting down and rebooting, powering off without warning.  The fan isn't broken, so what I think is wrong is a power supply that is in the process of dying.  It might be salvageable, but I am not confident in replacing a power supply, and there's a diagonal crack in the lower right hand corner of the laptop's screen's frame, going from about 1 cm above the bottom right hand corner of the screen to about an inch above the bottom corner of the screen, heading up and to the right. 

What I am planning on salvaging is the 4G memory chip (probably to go into Odysseus's machine) and the battery (if it fits). 

Otherwise, I'm not sure if I'll do anything but have the system wipe itself once I save the data I can, and trash the thing. 

It's a pity.  The laptop has given me four solid years of heavy use without much complaint, until yesterday morning when I had warnings that this issue was starting.

Blogging forecast

Light to nonexistent until sometime Friday or Saturday.  My laptop is in the process of going tits-up, and I've had to order a new one through Amazon, while thanking GOD that this isn't happening during semester. 

See y'all later.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Tough call.


My sanity is starting to win the argument.  I don't have much left, and probably should protect what I have. 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Bad governance

I've noticed, recently, a larger and larger percentage of people have started simply ignoring laws and doing what they were planning to do anyway.  Only a small minority of that group happens to be violent criminals. 

We have huge majorities of people ignoring gun registration laws in their states--far too many to prosecute.

We have increasing minorities of legitimate, peaceful, otherwise-law-abiding gun owners noting that most mass shootings have occurred in gun free zones, and beginning to do the common sense thing for their own safety, and ignoring legal postings.  And nobody catches on, because hello, concealed carry.  

We have whole states decriminalizing drugs that the federal government still consider illegal.

Hundreds of thousands of people are simply...ignoring bad law that steps on their own personal freedom.  There aren't enough prisons in the country to deal with all of them. 

Same with a whole lot of EPA over-regulation of private property, like the twunt that confronted a Florida homeowner to tell him that the "barbecue smell" and smoke from his grill was not allowed to leave his property.  Or the new regulations of wood-burning heating stoves. 

The federal government has forgotten a few different things that it learned during Prohibition (when most people were ignoring a major law that had been amended into the very Constitution): you can't legislate morality, and never pass a law that you know won't be obeyed. 

Seriously, the only thing the government is doing is ensuring that the people no longer respect the rule of law.  And that...that's the first step in making sure the government loses the consent of the governed.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

random ramblings

Odysseus had his last final exam this past week.  He is now finished with his Accounting degree.  I am incredibly proud of him--all of his classes were A's and B's, with two semesters of straight A's. 

We got a big box of sidewalk chalk a couple of weeks ago...right before we had a long period of mid 90s for highs, with heat indices in the low to mid 100s.  It's nowhere near that hot at either grandparents' houses, but it certainly is in town.

I took them out to go play with the sidewalk chalk anyway, yesterday morning.  Odysseus had a short telephone interview set up for yesterday, and the kids were really loud and restless. 

They did really well on the cleanup--there were half a dozen pieces left out, and the imp ran out and got five of those.  The last one was half-buried in the grass, and he just didn't see it.  I didn't see it, either, until we were getting back from doing grocery shopping late yesterday evening.

After the interview, Odysseus took the imp, the imp's bike, and two changes of clothes, and drove up to the barber shop that the imp likes--the one his grandparents take him to.  Both of my guys needed haircuts, so it seemed like a case of time and effort saved. 

Right after they'd left, one of the jobs Odysseus had applied for (not the one he'd interviewed for) called to set up an in-person interview.  And an hour later, the place he'd interviewed with called back to set up an in-person interview.  Either job would be fantastic, and either commute would be about the same length, where time is concerned.  Both jobs are simple, entry level positions, and Odysseus would rock either of the two.  

Needless to say, Odysseus feels lots better, and much, much more hopeful. 

Shadow has picked up an odd new habit: her spine is really, really itchy, and she loves having fingers dug through her plush-toy thick fur and given a good scratch up and down her spine.  She loves it so much her ears go limp, eyes fall half shut, and she starts licking the air.  If she gets an arm within reach, she whips around and starts licking the person doing the scratching, and purring as loud as she can. 

Cricket absolutely hates this, and will turn wrong side out, lash out with no-claw slaps, and run away to hide. 

The cats are nearly complete opposites where personality is concerned. 

My dog has begun trying to knock me off my feet as soon as she sees me, so that she can climb in my lap and roll over and over and over--it's a little weird.  I don't mean just rolling onto her back to get belly rubs.  No, I mean all the way over as fast as she can squirm, as many times as she can, until she gets dizzy from it. 

Dog is nuts.

Next weekend is our state's back-to-school sales tax free weekend.  So this coming week, I've got to try all of the imp's jeans from last year on him to see just how much too short they are. 

They go back to school on the 13th of August. 

I go back the next Monday. 

I'm finally caught most of the way up with the housework I fell behind on while I was sick, so my focus for reading and writing is returning.  I should be finished with the book I'm editing within the next day or so, and then will be getting back into my own writing.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Oh, brilliant.

Dumbing down college degrees further, semester by semester.  Basic Economics has been replaced as a core class by something simpler that emphasizes Keynes's theories.  And now, my state has decided to do away with basic Algebra as a requirement to graduate.  

Wonderful.  By so doing, they're devaluing the degrees of those that took Algebra.  I mean, I can sort of see it for trade schools, for trades that have little to do with math (which are damn few), but not for liberal arts colleges and universities. 

Coming soon: Master's degree required for a basic, entry-level position at most jobs.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Sorta, but not quite.

So.  Ran across something last week that I've been ruminating on: "Skull-Stomping Sacred Cows: People are Dying Because We're Weak." 

We aren't weak.  Well, the American people (the real ones, the ones that remember what it is to BE an American, rather than European, or a "citizen of the world") aren't.  Neither are our military branches. 

Our politicians--the ones in control, and the ones our enemies look to when they assess the rest of us--are.  They desperately want to be "liked." 

We are not up against a similar culture, like we were in WWI or WWII, where we fought (mostly) in Europe against others who come from the same racial and cultural heritage that our nation was built on.  No, this is more like fighting on the Pacific front: we have facing us an enemy that sees nothing wrong in acts that seem, to us, to be cowardly, or barbaric. 

The thing is, they seem that way because they come from different cultural roots.  Ones that we only sort of shared.  These roots are in the Old Testament of the Bible.  Ours are almost completely founded in Europe alone, or in the New Testament.  Theirs are formed by tribalism,* ours by feudalism.**

We have it within our culture to overcome and wipe out theirs.  We've done it before, when we had to (see the early colonial period when we were forced to defend ourselves from the aggressive aboriginal tribes).  We are capable of doing it again.

Should a massive attack happen that hits us in the nerve center of the nation (i.e., Washington, D.C.), I do believe that our declared enemies, those who've declared war on us time and time again, will find that we are capable of doing it again, and that what they perceive as weakness--an unwillingness to cause unnecessary harm, or to torture instead of a swift death, or the discipline to not charge screaming into the fight but to wait and aim until there's no way to avoid our shots--are not weaknesses at all, but a massive well of strength that they, in their fractured, tribal based culture cannot hope to match.   

*Tribalism is focused on family, then extended family, then tribe, and to hell with anyone else.  And if stabbing a relative in the back is necessary for your own advancement, it's for the good of the tribe.

**Feudalism, done right, is a ruling class that cares for and protects its everyday people, right down to the individual families.  Advancement is not handled at the point of a knife, but by proving merit and working hard.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Rather proud of myself for this ruse...

I convinced the kids that they were both "It" in a game of hide and seek with toys in the imp's messy room; first, the blocks; then, the dozers (and steamrollers, and diggers); the wood trains and the die cast trains; and the Matchbox cars and trucks into one big box for sorting tomorrow once their boxes are found.

I pulled a Mary Poppins, and got one of two disaster areas cleaned up.  And the pixie wants the same done with her room tomorrow.




I cannot believe I managed that.  I will have to admit I'm a little more impressed with myself than I may have any right to be.

We are not Europe.

Recently, New York passed a law that states that "assault" rifles must be registered with state authorities.  I recall reading in the article that followed it up some time later that less than 20% of "assault" rifle owners in the state registered their rifles.  I'm pretty sure it was probably fewer than that, should all of the facts be known. 

Connecticut, after Sandy Hook, passed something similar, swearing that they only wanted to know where they were.  I'm pretty sure more registered there than in New York, but probably not as many as they'd've liked. 

And now, they're sending out confiscation letters.  Granted, they're only sending letters to those they think own an evil murder rifle, but I doubt the rest are far behind. 

The government officials involved in this stupidity are forgetting something: those that meekly registered their rifles like they were told may be sheep, but those that chose to disobey the law that ran contrary to their rights stated in and protected by the second amendment are likely to use those very rifles to protect themselves and their rights from a tyrannical government. 

They've also forgotten that Concord and Lexington were prompted by a government gun grab. 

In the twentieth century, there have been numerous gun grabs throughout Europe and Asia: The Ottoman Empire in 1915; the Soviets in the '20s; the Germans in the '30s; China, Uganda, Guatemala, and Cambodia through the second half of the century.  In each case, gun registration was near-immediately (within a year or two) followed up by gun confiscation.  In each case, the citizens meekly and lawfully turned over their arms.  And each case was followed up by massive numbers of people murdered by the very governments they turned their guns over to.  Millions.  Tens of millions.  Mostly either minority ethnic groups, persecuted religious minorities, or political rivals. 

Many Americans are both aware of this and wary of this happening here. 

This nation was founded by men and women who keenly felt the injustice of a hereditary political class that controlled their lives to a huge extent, and thus, left for freer pastures.  Though some two hundred years of political neglect--almost entirely benign--those who made this land their home learned to govern themselves, and learned to like the freedom to be left alone that they'd found here. 

In the early 1770s, that freedom started to be constricted.  The people were treated very unfairly (see the Declaration of Independence for further detail), and it chafed.  In 1775, the British government decided to quell the rebellion it could smell brewing before it got started, and misstepped.  King George III either didn't realize, or forgot, that the American colonies were made up of steel-spined malcontents that clanged when they walked.  And, in trying to seize the means for the colonies to defend themselves, triggered the very rebellion he feared in Concord an Lexington. 

Americans in 2015 are, for the most part, descended from these men who laid their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor on the line.  We are not sheep. 

And, most of all, we are not European. 

We will not lay down our God-given rights to defend ourselves just because some chattering, inbred nitwits in the hereditary political classes that have grown like a tumor in the heart of our nation tells us to.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

random ramblings

The various UTI problems I've had were triggered by an underlying issue: a small kidney stone that had decided it was time to go.  It was uncomfortable, yes, but not intensely painful, which says it was very small. 

The very day I started feeling better, I managed to food poison myself at lunch.  I spent Thursday and yesterday sicker than a dog. 

The kids have (mostly) been good for me this week, but not perfect.  In fact, the imp was a rancid little shit all day, yesterday.  I think the problem was that he hadn't gone to bed (and to sleep) until an hour, hour and a half past bedtime the night before...yet still got up yesterday morning at the stinking ass-crack of dawn.  And, since we'd gone up to my mother's to give Odysseus quiet to study because the library was closed yesterday, the imp also did not get a nap.

Today, Odysseus is taking the pixie up to visit his parents.  There's a live on stage version of Cinderella that they're taking her to go see.  She's spending the night. 

Last weekend, the imp spent the night, and Odysseus took the pixie to watch the new Minions movie.  The last time the pixie spent the night, we watched the first Captain America movie with him.  I think we may watch The Avengers tonight for the first time.  I think he's gonna love it, and he's going to be mesmerized.  He was with Captain America.

The cats have been sweet, this week.  Shadow has been "sneaking" into the imp's room and perching in a dark corner either of his shelves or under his chair (sneaking doesn't really work when she strops my legs before she goes to hide.)  Then, when he goes to bed, she sleeps on him for a few hours before she knocks to come out.  She usually wants out around 9:30-11:00 pm.  Cricket's been sitting on the arm of my chair, draping herself up and over my arm and shoulder, and purring in my ear.  It's been fairly nice...until she starts trying to eat my hair.  She has enough trouble with hairballs from her own hair, and she's a domestic short hair cat.  She really doesn't need to eat my hair, too, since it's about waist-long. 

My dog's been happily taking baths when my family gives them--she's figured out that the Dawn that they add to the water when they run the water (making bubbles that she plays with) kills fleas.  She loves baths, now.  And, since she's getting more frequent baths, she's not the little stink pot she used to be.  So, I sat down on the floor and scratched and petted my dog, who just half-smothered me with affection. 

I am past the writer's block--and the editor's block--now that I'm feeling a lot better than I have since the end of last month.  Kinda sucks that I'm so far behind on my housework, but I'm not so far that it's interfering with creativity levels.  I've got a bit done on my book, some more written out long hand, and a little bit more edited on DaddyBear's newest book draft (I'm about halfway done, and loving it).  I strongly recommend it, when he gets it up and published.

Friday, July 17, 2015

FFOT: IIC*

We have some real winners proposing and making laws.  First, we have sanctuary cities, where people who committed a crime to even be in this country, where apparently it's only a little thing where one of these criminals murder a woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are reasons I refuse to visit St. Louis and Kansas City in my own state.  That is one of them.

Then we have to appease the sackless herbivores** by creating a policy which disarms our soldiers and prevents them from defending themselves, despite the fact that they also argue that our soldiers and cops are the only ones trained enough to be permitted to own and carry said firearms.  And, of course, gun free zone equals target rich environment for those who have no intention of obeying the law, which led to four of our United States Marines being murdered by hajji at a gun free recruiting area.

And now, we have yet another law passed aimed at public schools in VA: the Every Child Achieves Act. They're so proud of themselves for naming art and music as core subjects.  Sad and sorry thing is this: they just doomed the teaching of art and music to go the same way as reading, writing and math--teaching the subject is going to go the way of teaching subjects tested always do.

And that's leaving aside the simple truth that not every child is capable of achieving to the same levels.  Many are not capable of achieving to the lowest level deemed adequate.  Are they going to do the same as they did with reading, writing, and math, and dumb everything down to the level that the least capable is able to reach, and ignore the ones that are capable of the top levels of achievement?

I know, I know: these things I've mentioned are either against the law (which criminals ignore, as I have already pointed out) or an unintended consequence.  Actually, all three instances are all unintended consequences of totally asinine laws, written and passed by mouth-breathing morons who happen to be for sale tto the highewst bidder.

I'm still debating whether our elected civil servants are whores or pimps, considering that they take the money while the rest of us get screwed. 

I wish they'd go fuck themselves instead.


*Idiots In Charge

**I do not claim credit for this lovely turn of phrase.  It was coined either by the lovely Tam from View From The Porch or one of her friends. 

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Disgust is the mildest term

I'm sure everyone's heard about the latest kerfuffle with Planned Parenthood.  I'll summarize, but won't link to the story plus video.  I don't want to owe anybody a new keyboard because they vomited on theirs.

In a breathtakingly horrific flouting of U.S. law, they are not only performing partial birth abortions by delivering late term babies breech and murdering them in the process, they're harvesting and selling organs when they think they can get away with it.

And each and every individual in the United States, willing or not, is complicit in this atrocity.  Because Planned Parenthood is supported by our tax dollars.

Never have I ever been so glad that we get more back than we pay in.  Because every dollar heading for the EITC is one that cannot be handed over to the murderers of the most innocent among us.

I am so far beyond angry that I cannot even express it.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

I feel like an idiot.

Odysseus found my draft book within about five seconds, yesterday.  It was about six inches from my right foot, under the edge of the coffee table. 

Monday, July 13, 2015

On the upside...

...I should be mostly recovered in a couple more days.

On the downside, it's gonna hurt like hell, should all of the accounts be believable, and not exaggerated.

I think, once that's done with, and semester's over, I shall take the little guns and a couple of rifles to the range.  I want some trigger time. 

In the meantime...has anybody seen my draft book?  I can't find it to transcribe what I'd written, and I can't remember what I'd written. 

Goodnight, everybody.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

random ramblings

So.  Sick imp was no longer sick when he woke up yesterday.  Ate two sausage links, and then ate well for lunch.  Which meant that we were able to go ahead and keep up with our plans yesterday to drop them off with Odysseus's parents, then go out for lunch.  He spent last night, and will be spending tonight, too.  And Grandma took them to the water park yesterday, and will be taking the imp (or already has taken, probably, by this point) back today.

Since the imp is at their grandparents' house, the pixie's here on her own.  I usually let her watch a lot of the things she likes that the imp doesn't, when he's gone, but today's a bit different.  Today, Odysseus took the pixie to her first movie theater movie: they went to see the new Minions movie. 

I've posted a half a dozen pens on my Etsy page.  Most of them are fairly inexpensive, but one is fairly rare, and it's rare to find another of the pens I've posted in as excellent of condition as it's in.  I've still got four more pens to fix (three to sell, one to keep as an exemplar of filler type).

My family has discovered the Dawn dish soap trick for fleas, and my little dog loves her bubble baths.  Mom says she huffs on the bubbles to blow them around. 

Shadow has been spending the early parts of nights sleeping on the imp for a while, now.  Last night, she spent most of the evening looking for her boy before she gave up and slept on his desk.  She's been sleeping on his desk for most of the day...and then decided she'd sleep on my recliner's footrest.

Cricket has been playing "the floor is lava" throughout the carpeted areas of the house.  Odysseus has three big, heavy plastic trunks in the hallway.  She jumps from the one closest to the living room doorway onto the pixie's desk, then from there to the back of the couch.  She jumps from the couch to the kitchen.  Does not seem to like carpet at all.

I've got just about one more month off before fall semester starts.  The kids' school starts on the Thursday before, sort of to give the kids a chance to get back into (or into for the first time) the swing of things.  And during this last month I have off (and once I've finally got this stupid UTI kicked to the curb), I'll see just how much I can get done.  The house has gone from debris field disaster area to a mere train wreck.  I'm not sure it's going to get better than that, given that I've got the kids following me and working on making new messes as I clean them up.  And eventually, I'll have to take time off and rework my textbook (again) and work on revising/revamping the class for next spring.  I've got a lot to learn for my plans, which should make my students better prepared to write in whatever their major is.

I'm just under a third of the way through the book I'm proofing.  It's slow going, because I hadn't been able to focus for long periods of time.  Too miserable.  I'm hoping I'll feel less like I have the flu tomorrow.

As for writing...I think I got through the most recent block, but I'm not entirely sure.  We shall see.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

My God.

It's so cute!

Our local pawn shop has had a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket pistol for going on six months, now.  Today, they threw an offer at us that we couldn't refuse (especially with how much I wanted it the first time I saw it), by knocking $50 off of the tag price, if we paid cash, and paid the sales tax for us.

Odysseus went and got it for me.  I can pocket-carry the adorable little thing, and I can't do that with a Kel-Tec .32.

My new tiny gun was made in 1911, judging by the serial number, has some wear on the finish, and some nincompoop tightened the screw a bit too much on the factory original grip on the left hand side, and cracked it.

Seriously.  It's just too cute to be believed.

And, sorta, matches my Colt 1903 pocket hammerless.

I cannot wait to go shoot it.

Update:  By request, here's a pic of my 1903 and my 1908 (both of which were made in 1911).

This is not my year.

January--pneumonia.
February--intestinal flu, and acquired gluten intolerance.
March--bronchitis.
April--possible stomach flu, possible food poisoning.

And in June, toward the end of the month, I felt a UTI coming on, so I started taking cranberry pills, and chugging water, and tried the Alka-Seltzer thing that supposedly works for my mom.  I thought my precautions knocked it out, but it came roaring back, and I went on a week of Cipro.  Took my last dose last night, and woke up with a backache this morning, on the right side.

Yep.  Fucking bladder infection traveled, and turned into a kidney infection.  Doc had the nurse shoot me in the hip with a horse's dose of keflex (with what felt like a horse needle).  She doesn't fuck around with potential kidney infections that don't respond to the antibiotic that takes out 90% of UTIs. 

I am outright dreading what August through December have in store.  Dreading it, I tell you. 

This has been a downright bad year for my health...and for my sanity.


Damn it.

The imp started squalling last night, just as I was starting to drift off to sleep.  Turns out, he was puking.  Said he had a burning tummy ache that made him sick and throw up.  We fed him a peanut butter sandwich to quell the heartburn (with a children's Pepto), gave him a fresh bucket, and left him to sleep. 

This morning, we found out that he'd puked again sometime during the night, and hadn't squalled or made a mess.  And was feeling too sick to eat, or to go to granny's.  He's ensconced on the couch, watching DVDs of season one of Scooby Doo.  The classic series.  And he's not feeling good enough to do more than that.

This bodes ill for the rest of the weekend.  We'd planned on letting my in-laws have the imp overnight tomorrow and Saturday. 

And, that means I still have sick imp care added to my chores list for the day.  At least he's simpler to deal with than a sick pixie: he mostly just wants to lay still (for the most part) on the couch, watch something, have a full water bottle, and maybe some peanut butter crackers to nibble on when he feels up to it. 

The pixie wants constant snuggles, as well as all of the above.

Time to get my ass up and get to work.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Food!

I hadn't realized just how much I'd been eating dairy, recently, until I started taking Cipro (antibiotic).  It requires that I abstain for two hours before taking, or six hours after.  Since I'm taking it every twelve hours, that's about four hours (while I'm awake) that I can eat dairy.

We've been going through a lot less cheese, a lot less yogurt, and a lot less ranch dressing. 

Concomitantly, we've been going through a lot more meat. 

I've also discovered that pretty much all grains (except corn) make me feel sluggish to varying degrees.  I try to keep those to supper.

Last night, I decided to try something different: enchiladas.  The recipe is simple--just meat and cheese rolled up into a corn tortilla, and drenched in enchilada sauce, then cheese on top, bake 'til bubbly.  I did half a dozen beef, half a dozen chicken. 

They were really, REALLY good.  Gooey good.  There are leftovers, but less than half a pan.  Both kinds were very good, but the chicken ones edged out the beef by a narrow margin. 

I'm gonna try it again, but with taco meat, and a lot less sauce. 

And in the meantime, I'm trying to plan supper...it's a cool, rainy day, so I have more options than I usually do, during summer weather.

And all this while I'm trying to ignore a major cheese craving that I can't indulge until 3:00.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Oh, great.

I have a pukey boy.  The imp is really sick to his stomach.  Threw up his breakfast, and the children's Pepto I gave him. 

I'm going to have to add "take care of sick imp" to my list of chores today, and hope it's something not catching.

Little done, yesterday

Not a whole lot beyond doing a lot of cooking, and even more clean-up.  Necessity (running a little short of one ingredient) forced a variation of my normal sloppy joe recipe* that I liked a lot better, and wound up eating about a half cup of the mixture over the top of a baked potato...and almost wasn't hungry at supper time. 

For as little as I got done, it took a lot of time and energy.  Experimentation in the kitchen is fun, though, especially when done under constraints that force me to get creative (like my newly acquired gluten intolerance...grumble...or being limited in when I can eat dairy by the antibiotics I'm taking).

I mean, even taking pictures of and posting half a dozen pens on Etsy took me almost an hour and a half.  Not hard, just a little time consuming and draining.  

So...that just means I need to bust my ass today and tomorrow to try to get caught up the rest of the way on what I didn't get done while I was down with the UTI (and self-inflicted water intoxication from trying to water the UTI's strength down a bit), and what I didn't get done yesterday because of faffing about in the kitchen. 

I probably ought to get started now, with the last load of laundry and making myself a to-do list to stay on task.  Because most of the time, I'll get started with one job, and get distracted by another when I'm only half done with the first, then get distracted by another, and then have a house full of chores half done, and a bigger mess than I started with by the end of the day.  A list helps keep me on task.


*Sloppy joes
1 lb meat
1 c bbq sauce
1/3 c mustard
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes

My modification is the addition of about 2-4 Tbsp A-1.  Gives it a smoky, spicy flavor that the Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce doesn't have by itself.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Busy weekend

I have one thing to say. 

If the White House isn't lit red, white, and blue for Independence Day, it shouldn't be lit any color for any other day.

Much of the weekend was spent picking at the things I fell behind on while I was sick, with regards to the housework.  Today will probably be more of the same, with the addition of cooking for someone who can't currently cook for themselves.  I'm gonna make a Sloppy Joe goulash for someone who shall currently remain nameless to avoid having them harassed by other parties who happen to be trying to financially ruin them.  I'm going to try to feed this person more often.  I didn't realize how bad their financial situation was until last night.

Another of my pens sold last night.  I'll get it shipped today.  I'm going to need to wrap it after Odysseus wakes, and address the mailer, like now.  It's going to Illinois.  I hope the buyer loves it as much as I do.  The Parker 21 is an absolute darling to write with. 

I've got half a dozen pens to take pictures of, then post to Etsy.  I love the ones I've sold, and hope that the people that purchased them are happy with them.  I feel the same about the ones I'm selling. 

Really isn't a whole lot else going on right now.  My mom's going to watch the kids on Tuesday or Thursday so I can get completely caught up (and maybe ahead) on the housework, and then their other grandparents will watch them on Friday so that Odysseus and I can go out for lunch on our anniversary. 

Between those efforts, avoiding news headlines about anything I can't affect, alpha reading (I'm about a quarter of the way through), and my own writing, I think my week's going to be a bit busy. 

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Random ramblings.

I am an idiot.

In the course of trying to keep a UTI under control until I could get to the doctor's office, I wound up giving my self a mild case of water intoxication.  With symptoms of nausea, lethargy, and dizziness, and a weight gain in one day of ten pounds.

A night and a day of mild diuretics fixed it, but it was a little unnerving to realize that the UTI wasn't the only thing wrong, and the other thing was something I'd done to myself.  No more drinking more than a gallon a day, and only that much when I'm busy and sweating (which I don't do much...which really sucks during hot weather).  

The kids are the worst of monsters for night owl parents: they're morning people.  Doesn't matter how late I put them to bed, they're up no later than 6:30 in the summer, and often emerging from the imp's room, where they're supposed to play and be quiet until at least 7:00.  No, it doesn't seem to matter if they can't see the sunrise--I think they feel it like vampires feel the sun setting in fiction. 

Why, no, I didn't get back to sleep this morning.  Why did you think to ask that?  ;)

Yesterday, the kids and I went up to Mom's.  I had Odysseus take us and leave us there, so that he could join us for supper, after he'd had a chance to take the unit test for the online class he's taking. 

It did not work out that way.  The kids had a ball, but the fucking course website was buggy as hell, and he didn't want it to freeze in the middle of taking his test and boot him out.  Here's hoping it works today, during the hour I have the kids playing in the front yard with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. 

But in any case, we did go to Mom's yesterday.  Where I found that yes, Mom actually did order me a pen that had been on my Amazon wish list.  It's a Hero 616, with a gold filled cap and a gold nib.  I'm pretty sure it's a reproduction of a Parker 51.  It's an extremely fine nib, very pretty, has an old fashioned aerometric filling system, and has a clear, plastic ring between the section and the filling system and barrel that shows ink level--something few of my other pens have.  It's a very nice feature. 

I've read in Amazon reviews that some  of these pens have a(n easily fixable) problem with leaking, but mine needed no tinkering before I could fill it.  And it hasn't burped yet, like some of my pens do when they're one of the older ones and get shaken about. 

Once we got home, the cats were incredibly possessive and clingy.  I don't know if it's because they missed us, or smelled my sister's and aunts' cats on us.

There wasn't much writing done, this week, and what was done was done longhand.  I need to get that gathered up (three different notebooks), and get that transcribed.

I am alpha-reading and helping with the first edit on a friend's book.  I can advise this: when it comes out in the Amazon stores, go buy it.  So far, it's really hooked my attention, and I'm only a few pages in.  Which I read while I was feeling my worst, wasn't interested in much, and still got hooked.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

I don't care.

I don't care if someone calls themselves gay, straight, conservative, liberal, black, white, Oriental, Hispanic, atheist, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, Wiccan, Asatru, or something else I can't think of to name.  I don't care if someone's bright or dim.  I don't care. 

The main things I think are:

  • Is this person acting like/going to act like a threat to me, or to my family? 
  • Is this person acting courteous or rude/thoughtless?  
  • Is this person acting like an asshole?  
  • Is this person open to listening to facts and changing their minds when proven wrong, or are they close minded? 
  • Is this person capable of changing behaviors that prove destructive?
This is what I judge people on.  Most people are rude/thoughtless assholes that maintain their decided ignorance with a passion I find breathtakingly obnoxious. 

I do not care about political correctness, but I will keep my opinions on someone's politics to myself, unless and until I no longer can.  Many do not permit me to do that.  And then I get called names, that I don't care about, but still get worried about keeping my job because of.

And this is why I like individuals just fine, but don't like people in general. 

Oh, ugh.

UTIs suck.  They really, really do.  I'd started chugging water and taking cranberry pills and drinking cranberry juice and alka-seltzer when I felt it coming on...and the symptoms went away.  All of them.  So, I thought the problem had gone away.  I kept taking the cranberry pills, and chugging the water, but quit with the rest because it was starting to bother my stomach.

The symptoms came roaring, as of this morning, only worse.  This time, it includes nausea, mid-back pain, and a low-grade fever. 

Damn it.

Got a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning.  I'll feel better next week.