Random and Assorted
Jetlag, fatigue, not to mention this full-on Con Cold I brought back with me have turned my brain to instant oatmeal.
Yesterday I was up at 5:00am. Or rather, I slept fitfully because of congestion and knowing that I had the alarm set for 5:20 (which always makes me wake up repeatedly, afraid I've missed the alarm) until I gave up on sleep and just got up. Showered and dressed and headed out to catch the bus into downtown because the two closest Flexcars to me were reserved for the times I needed them. Downtown is easy to get to and there are dozens of cars to choose from, but the getting up extra early thing was killing me. Drove up to get Kate in time to drive her back to Seattle for Zookids. Dropped her off, witnessed her trying on her uniform, got the schedule and took off again to return the Flexcar. I'd intended to bus back home, drop of her things and then bus back to the zoo in time to get her, but the 101 to Renton rolled up as soon as I got to the stop and I chose to go to Renton to check the PO Box instead (Kate's suitcase and gigantic stuffed dog in tow). Checked the mail, wolfed down a hot dog and a Mountain Dew and hopped back onto the bus, hoping to have enough time to jump off, drop her crap at home and head back to the zoo. At my home stop I decided I was cutting it too close and just headed straight back to the zoo, where I ended up waiting for over half an hour for the kids to finish up... I could have dropped her crap at home after all. Pick up the Kate, back out to the bus stop again, hearing all about what the Zookids are up to.
Things were timed right so that we jumped right onto the bus home without problems, at least until we got a bit south of downtown, at which point a crazy woman at the front of the bus started screaming and crying and moaning and cursing and getting into it with the bus driver, who eventually pulled over and demanded the woman get off the bus (which only made her go even crazier). The confrontation culminated with the woman (a misshapen, dwarf-sized middle-aged woman with stringy grey hair and features contorted with rage) jumping up and down screaming and spitting on the driver before leaving the bus, at which point the driver called the police and started yelling back about "that's assault". We were forced to sit there waiting for the police to come resolve the dispute, while tired working class people heckled the driver to just get on the road so they could get home. Finally, after policed statements were given and the bus began to roll again, we were treated to the driver's apology, his tearful "I'm a person, I deserve to be treated with respect too" speech and an offer of a free bus transfer to make up for any missed connections. Ug. Finally home in time for Chris to head out to the bank and for a meeting to nail down the release schedule for one of our upcoming lines with one of the primary authors. By the time he came home from that, I was dead asleep (as he had been when I slipped out of the house pre-dawn).
I'm already feeling sad that darkness is falling around 8:30pm again. I love the long summer days, when there's still light lingering in the sky after 9:00. The days get shorter all too fast for my taste. Too soon we will be looking at darkness falling at 4:30 or 5:00pm.
Kate helped me cook dinner last night: Tex-Mex Pasta Salad from Cooking Light. Pasta, ground turkey flavored with taco seasonings, cheese, tomato, bell pepper, green onion, black olives, and black beans in a "sauce" of sour cream, cumin, and lime juice. Not only did she help me cook it, she ATE it, and enthused about how good it was! Nearly ten years old and finally eating food!
Having run through about 40% of the credit card slips from GenCon, we're already at $500 in declined charges that I'm going to have to try and recover from people. Worse yet, I recognize at least one of the names as someone whose credit card we took at Origins with the same results.
According to Comics & Games Retailer, Blue Rose is in the Top 20 best selling roleplaying games for June 2005. Add that to our three silver ENnies. Yay us!
Tomorrow I have to have Kate to the zoo, in uniform and with a sack lunch, by 9:30am for the Zoofari. She'll be done by 3:00pm so it's just long enough for me to bus back home and have lunch and the bus back to pick her up OR stay around the zoo for hours on end and save myself the travel time. Can't decide which option to choose, neither is ideal. Sunday I have to be back on the road to bring Kate back to Mark's for his MIL's birthday party. Kate will be back from Canada and back on "school year" schedule on Thursday, just in time for us to catch our crack-of-dawn flight to Conquest San Francisco on September 2nd. Fingers crossed that I'm recovered from this lingering GenCon crud and caught up on everything by then!
Mark bought Kate the Nintendog; she's even more keen than ever to get a real pet. I can't imagine trying to handle a dog with our travel schedule, but I'm hoping we can find a cat that Chris can tolerate once school starts.
Yesterday I was up at 5:00am. Or rather, I slept fitfully because of congestion and knowing that I had the alarm set for 5:20 (which always makes me wake up repeatedly, afraid I've missed the alarm) until I gave up on sleep and just got up. Showered and dressed and headed out to catch the bus into downtown because the two closest Flexcars to me were reserved for the times I needed them. Downtown is easy to get to and there are dozens of cars to choose from, but the getting up extra early thing was killing me. Drove up to get Kate in time to drive her back to Seattle for Zookids. Dropped her off, witnessed her trying on her uniform, got the schedule and took off again to return the Flexcar. I'd intended to bus back home, drop of her things and then bus back to the zoo in time to get her, but the 101 to Renton rolled up as soon as I got to the stop and I chose to go to Renton to check the PO Box instead (Kate's suitcase and gigantic stuffed dog in tow). Checked the mail, wolfed down a hot dog and a Mountain Dew and hopped back onto the bus, hoping to have enough time to jump off, drop her crap at home and head back to the zoo. At my home stop I decided I was cutting it too close and just headed straight back to the zoo, where I ended up waiting for over half an hour for the kids to finish up... I could have dropped her crap at home after all. Pick up the Kate, back out to the bus stop again, hearing all about what the Zookids are up to.
Things were timed right so that we jumped right onto the bus home without problems, at least until we got a bit south of downtown, at which point a crazy woman at the front of the bus started screaming and crying and moaning and cursing and getting into it with the bus driver, who eventually pulled over and demanded the woman get off the bus (which only made her go even crazier). The confrontation culminated with the woman (a misshapen, dwarf-sized middle-aged woman with stringy grey hair and features contorted with rage) jumping up and down screaming and spitting on the driver before leaving the bus, at which point the driver called the police and started yelling back about "that's assault". We were forced to sit there waiting for the police to come resolve the dispute, while tired working class people heckled the driver to just get on the road so they could get home. Finally, after policed statements were given and the bus began to roll again, we were treated to the driver's apology, his tearful "I'm a person, I deserve to be treated with respect too" speech and an offer of a free bus transfer to make up for any missed connections. Ug. Finally home in time for Chris to head out to the bank and for a meeting to nail down the release schedule for one of our upcoming lines with one of the primary authors. By the time he came home from that, I was dead asleep (as he had been when I slipped out of the house pre-dawn).
I'm already feeling sad that darkness is falling around 8:30pm again. I love the long summer days, when there's still light lingering in the sky after 9:00. The days get shorter all too fast for my taste. Too soon we will be looking at darkness falling at 4:30 or 5:00pm.
Kate helped me cook dinner last night: Tex-Mex Pasta Salad from Cooking Light. Pasta, ground turkey flavored with taco seasonings, cheese, tomato, bell pepper, green onion, black olives, and black beans in a "sauce" of sour cream, cumin, and lime juice. Not only did she help me cook it, she ATE it, and enthused about how good it was! Nearly ten years old and finally eating food!
Having run through about 40% of the credit card slips from GenCon, we're already at $500 in declined charges that I'm going to have to try and recover from people. Worse yet, I recognize at least one of the names as someone whose credit card we took at Origins with the same results.
According to Comics & Games Retailer, Blue Rose is in the Top 20 best selling roleplaying games for June 2005. Add that to our three silver ENnies. Yay us!
Tomorrow I have to have Kate to the zoo, in uniform and with a sack lunch, by 9:30am for the Zoofari. She'll be done by 3:00pm so it's just long enough for me to bus back home and have lunch and the bus back to pick her up OR stay around the zoo for hours on end and save myself the travel time. Can't decide which option to choose, neither is ideal. Sunday I have to be back on the road to bring Kate back to Mark's for his MIL's birthday party. Kate will be back from Canada and back on "school year" schedule on Thursday, just in time for us to catch our crack-of-dawn flight to Conquest San Francisco on September 2nd. Fingers crossed that I'm recovered from this lingering GenCon crud and caught up on everything by then!
Mark bought Kate the Nintendog; she's even more keen than ever to get a real pet. I can't imagine trying to handle a dog with our travel schedule, but I'm hoping we can find a cat that Chris can tolerate once school starts.
$500.00 in declined charges. Yuck. Hope you get people to pay up. Though I think one person should have fraud charges brought against him.
That said, your experiences are a good argument for smart cards. Some times people don't realize they don't have that much money on their cards. With smart cards - especially those with LCD displays - they'd be able to find out how much they have left before tendering the card.
On pets: If you get a cat get two. That way they can conspire against you when you're off on a trip.
Greetings,
I just thought I'd post and say that you are the one who caused me to start blogging.
I was taking all of the personality tests you linked too and when I finished I was bored so I started a blog. That was last November and I've been blogging faithfully ever since.
When you say "the Nintendog" I assume you mean a Nintendo DS and a copy of Nintendogs. A very cool game. Be warned: many of the other DS games are kind of ropey, though Super Mario DS and Kirby Canvas Curse both rock. Note it'll also play Gameboy Advance games: now's your opportunity to get her hooked into the Final Fantasy franchise, which will keep her quiet for weeks.
She's had the DS since Christmas, a combined birthday/xmas present from her dad and meant to give her something to do on the various trips she's forced to take during the year.
The Nintendog thing is new and I've only gotten a glimpse of it as she tossed a virtual rubber mushroom around the room for her virtual daschund.