I feel bad and beautiful

Firstly, I managed to come up with that ever elusive third prompt idea for the SS/HG Exchange and got my sign up all posted, good and proper. And only six days from the deadline.

My parents came down to visit. There was Kobe for dinner. Tomorrow there shall be a hike and a trip to the top of a mountain. It's a short mountain.

And... most importantly... we got a new member of the household today.

Her name is Stink Pot (I so did not name her) and the vet says she's a special needs kitty.

She is extremely people shy, and very anxious - to the point of over grooming herself. I only saw her for a few minutes at the vet, she didn't want to be around anyone she didn't know, and I didn't want to upset her.

When I brought her home, I left her in the carrier and set her on the floor for the others to come sniff. The dog ignored her completely, as he does. The other two cats were interested for awhile, but eventually wandered off. I took Stinker back to my room so she could have a room away from the others for a few days to adjust, and opened the carrier. She disappeared under the bed before I had a chance to blink.

A few hours later, I wanted to make sure she was alright, and checked under the bed. No cat.

No cat anywhere in the bedroom, actually, which caused me a few moments of confusion before I thought to check in the bathroom cabinets. Which, of course, was where she was. Rather than trying to get her to leave, I just cleaned up the extra junk from under the sink and put in one of the cat blankets so that she could have something to lie on if she wanted it.

( Picture Time )

Under the sink was fine with me, but when she managed to work her way in to the box spring of my bed... that was bad. I think I've managed to cover the hole she used - after spending twenty minutes luring a people shy cat out of her safe hidey hole - with some three ring binders full of my husbands collectible pirate cards. For the moment, Stinker seems content to just chill under the bed.

By the way, assuming she stays with us - and I'm hoping she does, but that will depend on how she reacts to the rest of the menagerie and they to her - I'm thinking she'll need a new name. I can't continue to call her Stink Pot.

Yesterday marked the beginning of my sixth year of marriage to the Captain. We spent the early part of the day looking at houses - and found the perfect place - the latter half waiting to hear back from the loan person - where we found out that we can in fact get the loan for 100 percent financing and no down payment - and then the glow of impending house ownership disappeared when we sat down and really, truely thought things through.

( blah blah financial issues blah blah )

Sadly, all the worry and nerves about the house made me sicker than I'd already been the last few weeks (yes, I have a doctor's appointment, but it's not for another 18 days and I scheduled it two weeks ago), and by the time we went to dinner at Kobe I was falling asleep and couldn't really eat. Still, dinner was wonderful, and Captain and I had a great time.

I gave him the newest Harry Dresden novel and the soundtrack to the first PotC movie (which was stole from our car during the accident in January, so this is the second time he's received it), and he surprised me with a whole bunch of scrapbook supplies. I'd dragged him to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago in search of something specific for the wedding album, but spent a long time walking up and down the aisles browsing because I didn't want to have to come back in two days because I'd forgotten something, and nearly everything I'd pointed at wistfully that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and a few things I'd merely mentioned I wanting someday but didn't see, he found. The fact that he made note and went back to find things rather than just picking the "easy to find in case you can't come up with something else" item on my amazon list nearly made me teary.

Anywho, I now have my very own 12 inch metal ruler (since my other one has mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again), and a dozen new decorative scissors, and TWO different sized corner rounders (TWO!), and a small light table, and a 1 inch square punch that is the size of my hand. I'm not kidding. The size of my HAND. (The package says it's a "whale of a punch.")

Then we came home and I stayed awake long enough to see about fifteen minutes of Man vs. Wild, which is a seriously messed up show on Discovery. So far I've seen that man drink the water out of fresh elephant poo (which made me sort of vomit in my mouth a bit), eat a snake raw, eat fish raw by just biting into them, eat an entire raven egg shell and all, and last night he peed on his shirt so he could wrap it around his head to keep cool. On camera.

So, all in all, even being sick, this was the best anniversary EVAH! The local Renfest starts today, and we're thinking about going with a few friends, which would totally go with the anniversary theme for us - Fifth Year: Pirates.

For now, while the house is still quiet, and the dog is snoring at my feet, I'm going to work on my wedding album scrapbook with all my new toys and read some of the gifts coming out on the sshg_exchange.

The first of June will be my fifth wedding anniversary. Let me remind you of the curse of Miah's anniversaries.

( Anniversary talk )

( Arts and Crafts talk )

Finally, Colonel Brandon (the dog) has been having issues lately. I don't know what is wrong with him, but I'm guessing it's allergy related. The biggest problem is that he's already on the highest dosage of his allergy meds we can give him without getting the vet to prescribe something new (which we will totally be asking about on Wed. when we take him in again). He's just recovered from two rounds of antibiotics due to throat irritants. His nose is probably runny and clogged, and we know it's bone dry. He's panting a lot, even though we've dropped the thermostat down so low that my finger nails regularly turn purple and blue and my hands go numb. He is, however, eating just fine, drinking LOTS of water, and wanting to run up and down the hall chasing things when Captain throws them, so I don't think he's dying of some wasting disease or brain fever. Hence my completely non-professional diagnosis of "Damn dog is allergic to Oklahoma".

One last thing - snazzykathy, if you see this and are still interested in maybe meeting up at the Renfest this weekend, shoot me an e-mail or something and we can try to work some plans out.

Captain got a birthday card from his brother and sis-in-law AND brought home sushi for dinner (for me, he's very anti-raw fish).

AND last night I managed to knock out the first "six months" of a "seven year" journalling exercise for a research project I'm working on to help me better understand a character I've been writing about for a few years but never really connected with. Yes, it's a HP character. No, I'm not going to be more specific since the only person it really effects right now is me and has nothing to do with any of my WIP but might someday help me suck less on new fics that I attempt.

AND I calculated last night that in the last two days I wrote just over 1100 words on Walls of Jericho which had been basically dead in the water for over a year.

My birthday isn't until next month but I haven't seen my parents in... Okay, it's possible I hadn't seen them since January/early February. Anyway, they came down to visit Captain and I Monday night and we took them sight seeing on Tuesday.

We went out to see Geronimo's grave, and walked through the South Apache cemetery on base for awhile. Then Captain drove us out to Medicine Bluff, which I had never seen before and my goodness is it gorgeous out there. It's Oklahoma. It's mostly flatish. And some hills that they claim are the Wichita Mountains (they may get bigger elsewhere, I don't know), but you drive around to look at the back of the hill and it's a cliff face with a river at the bottom. Gorgeous.

Then we went to the PX to look for things like throw pillows for the new futon that the dog is already defacing. Sigh.

Anyway, that's where we found my early birthday present. It's a beautiful asian looking dress, with a Mandarin collar, side slits... Basically it is exactly like the dresses I coveted in Manhappiness, only this one fit me.

And may I say it looks hot. Sadly, I have no where to wear it to, but if I did... hot.

I got mail from rewil, a pair of Slytherin socks and a some eggnog scented perfume that I love.

Then we went to Kobe for sushi and steak and shrimp and chicken and fried rice and Thomas the Uber-Chef and much enjoyment was had by me.

Finally, in honor of the CSI conversation I'm having in chat right now... iconage.

Chalupacabra - The Taco Sucker

Ate at Kobe again. Was prom night, again. New waitress. Surly cook, again. Waste of a hundred bucks.

Item one: Have made progress on the knitting. Sort of. The purling is... vexing, but doable.

Item two: When one is out shopping at the local Volde-Mart with a friend and said friend has written the grocery list in her own amusing code, one should make an effort to actually read what is written. In other words fruitage and frottage are not the same thing, not pronounced the same*, and most likely the frottage will not be found near the front of the store next to the deli. Actually, knowing that Volde-Mart, it might be but I still wouldn't want to throw some into my cart.

Item three: Been having loads of fun plotting for an upcoming story arc on __lightning__ and throwing ideas off the other mods. I think this plot has gone through so many little nips and tweaks since it was first suggested and it just keeps getting better. And rewil has been doing fabulous work on researching the mythos behind the antagonists.

Item four: I like lists.

Item five: Went to Texas yesterday. rewil and I decided to cross the state line, maybe get something to eat, do a little shopping. Last time we did that we ended up in Nebraska for Mexican food. Yesterday it was Texas for sushi at Buffet City ($10 for the buffet, Mongolian BBQ, sushi and a drink AND the they had nagiri! I ate more than $10 worth of sushi alone, much less the rest of the food.) and a trip to the Wichita Falls mall where I purchased some new knee high socks and a Jareth postcard.

* - that was totally me, btw. And rewil and I couldn't stop giggling for the rest of the shopping trip.

My RL drama is working itself out and I'm feeling more like myself so it's time to bother people once more. So, below are many, many cuts to entertain and annoy.

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( Late night chatting with Rewil )

-~*~-

And then later:
( Late Night Chatting part Duex )

-~*~-

Still later:
( Part tres? )

-~*~-

Karma - She is a bitch

( Read more... )

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I've got to admit a guilty secret.

I - I - I've been eating veggies.

Green ones.

I know, I know. I swore I'd never do it but those veggies in the stir fry - oh my goodness, they are so crispy and tasty in the cream sauce and I can't help it. I hang my head in shame.

Still won't eat the onions.

-~*~-

The Lego Hogwarts project is done. For now. Technically I'm still working on mix N matching heads/hair and bodies on my extra figs to add them in. But other than that, everything is built and up until I have a chance to take pictures.

In other words I'm awake and bored.

We went to Kobe for dinner (again) tonight. The lovely Stephenie was our waitress once more - are you getting a clue that perhaps we eat there a bit often since I'm learning the names of the staff? We were seated at the same table as a party of four and an older gentleman on his own and Stephenie went around the table asking for drink orders, got to cptn_oblivious and I and told us what we were having with a grin. She also knew our dinner and sushi order. Did I mention we're very predictable? Thomas, our chef, came to the table and knew how I wanted my steak cooked and gave me an extra portion of fried rice and extra cream sauce since he knew I always take half my dinner home for later.

We likes them, on yes we do, preciousss.

That reminds me of a story, last month at some point we were eating there and the couple next to us (which we did not know) and I were talking about chefs when my togo box came out and I was loading up my dinner, carefully picking out the steamed zucchini to leave because... eww. The lady had just given me a piece of eel to try from her appetizer because her guy was having none of that and it was pretty good, a little gooey but good. The guy goes "You'll eat raw eel but you won't eat zucchini?"

Anywho, get home and notice the transformer on the light pole on the corner is sparking big blue shinies and making a lovely hissy noise. Call the emergency line for the power company and then Captain and I bundle up in our coats and stood out in the driveway gawking like Kansans in a tornado warning. It turns out only the guy across the street's power was effected and it had been going wonky since noon. We called the power company at 8:15, they didn't show up until nearly nine. If his power had been flickering constantly since noon either he was very unconcerned or the power people were really slow.

What else? Oh, just started a new story arc for Daphne on __lightning__. Really looking forward to that. Had a bit of fun with a certain thread from last week. *Kisses to Draco* Snerk.

Let me leave you with this thought: Lego Deatheaters are so damn cute.

At roughly a quarter to four this morning cptn_oblivious was officially re-deployed and I was allowed to bring my soldier home.

Then I promptly fell asleep because I'd been up since 9 am the day before getting things ready (back when he was supposed to be redeployed at 10 pm - then midnight - then two am - then three). Still so tired.

Long and short of it is, he's home and already we're scuffling over who gets to use the computer. (I kicked him off when I got up this afternoon.) We ran some errands and decided to push Christmas back to this weekend as he didn't get a chance to find anything for me yet.

Tonight I have been promised Japanese Steakhouse.