mythicalgirl: (Kiss - art by Dale Sizer)
Work was something of a bitch this past week.  I'm still not done with the IVR coding despite working my butt off.  Which means I will be plugged in at some point this weekend to try to get the remaining code done and unit tested before tossing it over the wall to my tester.  I was hoping to get it done yesterday but I ran into an object that isn't working (corrupt) and some needed transaction tweaks to make shit actually post on the system and, well, then it was time to go to the gym.  Where I torqued my knee a bit so I was limping girl all last night and part of today.  I kneeled a lot today while working on the flower beds and that seems to have helped - whatever was out of place slipped back to where it belongs so I'm now limp free again. 

Earlier I managed to drag myself out of bed at a decent hour so I could start working on the yard.  Weeding was accomplished as was cutting back the ornamental grasses in front of the house.  My arms are now scratched all to hell but the job is done.  I did another coat of stain on the deck (horizontal surfaces only this time), showered, went grocery shopping and ate a late lunch.  I'm now beyond pooped so I'm doing a little surfing while the laundry is in the wash.  A nap may be in order and while work is beckoning I know better than to attempt IVR code when sleepy.  Makes for very strange results. 

I'll be working from home on Monday as I need to be here when the heating & air conditioning guy comes to do the tune-up on my system.  I don't really like using a whole day for something that will take 30-45 minutes but they wouldn't do a Saturday appointment.  They'll be here between noon and five - quite the appointment window!  Oh well, I tend to get more done in less time when I work from home so maybe things will be OK. 

Italy is scheduled - Dad and I have our flight overseas and I have my flight to Dallas to meet up with him.  There is a couch in Santa Lucia di Piave reserved for me for 7 days this September.  I'm so excited, you just don't know.  I won't get to Pompeii this trip (maybe in 2011?) as we're going to concentrate on Northern Italy due to time constraints.  Venice, Verona, maybe Milan and Lake Como.  I'm reading up on places and making my wish list of where I'd like to go.  I've been to Venice before but I want to see it again when a) I'll appreciate it and b) I'll be sober (long story). 

And in other news I hit 203 this past Monday but was back up a few pounds by the end of the week.  A combination of eating several meals out instead of bringing my lunch and some bloating possibly attributed to ovulation.  I'll work out tomorrow, being careful not to overdue it with my knee, and weigh in again on Monday.  Hopefully everything will be back under control then.

Now I need to put the laundry in the dryer and read some comics online.  Later!
mythicalgirl: (leaking karma)
My next Big Trip is about 35 days away and I'm getting anxious.  Dad and I are going on another cruise, again to Mexico, but this time to the Pacific coast and the Sea Of Cortez.  There will much playing in the sun and the sea, weather permitting.  We have such activities as kayaking, horseback riding and snorkeling on the agenda.  As well as an all day trip into Copper Canyon via train, which should be just awesome.  I've ordered a new swimsuit and some clothes (which have shipped) and, finally, a digital camera (which has not shipped yet).  In reality I'm nowhere near ready to go yet but mentally?  Oh yeah, baby, I am so there. 

Want to know what my life is like some days?  Read Not Invented Here by Bill Barnes.  Especially today's strip - I have had demos like that before.  I may have even said the same thing! 

My sis did an end of year / end of decade wrap up thing on her blog.  Go check out the bookbabe if you aren't already a fan. 

I've also been reading Jay Lake's blog ([livejournal.com profile] jaylake)  here on Live Journal as he details his cancer journey.  I've been touched by his courage and his honesty as he chronicles this path that no one would ever wish to take.  I've cried several times, laughed even more, and I am quite simply inspired by his awesomeness.  I can only hope that if something similar ever happens to me or one of mine that I face it with even half as much grace.     

As for my 2009 all I can really say is that I'm kind of glad it is over.  I went on an amazing trip, traipsing all over Mayan ruins in Central America, and that was easily the highlight of the year as work pretty much ate the rest of it.  The past decade has seen me starting a new life after a disastrous long-term relationship (actually ended in 1999), going back to school for work and then discovering Classical Studies instead, embracing my artistic side, and finally being comfortable in my own skin.  There have been up and downs, of course.  A resurgence of my depression in a big way that led to my getting help (therapy and drugs) and while I doublt I'll ever conquer it completely I've learned control.  A relationship that I thought was the one and might last forever which sadly didn't.  The loss of dear family members balanced in some ways by becoming closer to my father than I've ever been.  And I bought my house, which I love dearly even when it breaks. 

In closing I guess I can say it's been a good decade.  I certainly learned a lot, mostly about myself.  

Peace and blessings to all in the New Year.  
   
mythicalgirl: (Default)
The three-day holiday weekend was gorgeous!  I did nothing special and loved every minute of it.  I didn't clean, I didn't balance my checkbook, I didn't get a new camera....basically I didn't do any of the things I told myself I was going to do this past weekend.  Instead I read, watched movies, played games on the computer and slept.  And ate X-Mas goodies, which meant I also had to work out some.  And I got to shovel snow last night so that counted as my workout for Sunday.   

Now I am back at work. As the subject line of this entry indicates I'm having major issues concentrating today.  Even so I've managed to get some more code done on my C# program and fixed a problem I was having with sorting and searching.  Now I'm on to the next screen to get it working as well.  My teacher/co-worker comes back next Monday and I'd like to be able to show him that I figured a lot of this shit out myself. 

This evening is the gym and then more of The Player Of Games by Ian M Banks.  I'm liking this book much better than Consider Phlebas and I thought that one was a decent book!  I'm about half-way through and had a hell of a time putting it down last night.  Too bad we didn't have today off as well! 

OK, enough blabbering!  Back to work!
mythicalgirl: (emo poems)
The weekend was too short - probably because I worked half of it.  My to do list - both at work and at home - doesn't seem to be getting any shorter these days. 

Right now I have a wicked headache (left side of the head only, per usual) and a sour tummy, both of which are probably in at least some small way related to lack of sleep and excessive stress.  I promised myself that I would go to the gym and ride the bike 3-4 times this week though (unless I'm running a fever) and that is what I'm gonna do.  The exercise helps with the stress, big time.  And when I get home there will be 15 minutes of meditation, which should help as well. 

And I've made a deal with myself that if I can't sleep again tonight I'm going to get up and paint a fucking masterpiece.  Beats staring at the wall. 

Off to the gym.  Fingers crossed that I don't hurl. 
mythicalgirl: (tank girl)
Yes, I know it has been forever.  I didn't have much to say and I've been busy.  But today?  I am back, baby!

I noticed the other day that there was water on the floor behind the toilet in the small bath.  At first I was thinking someone might have splashed water there as the 'rents had just left after staying with me for a few days.  So I cleaned it up and went on my merry way.  Then it came back but I thought maybe it was condensation from the tank as I tend to take long steamy showers on cold mornings.  Cleaned it up again.  Fast forward to Friday night and there is more water.  Not much but enough for me to decide that maybe something is wrong here.  I put down a towel and then took baths in the other bathroom for the weekend.  Today?  Towel was wet and there is definitely a leak meaning it is plumber time.  Luckily I'm working from home today and they were able to fit me in this afternoon.  The toilet is now leak free (for the moment) and I'm a little poorer but at least I didn't have to figure out how to fix it myself. 

I have a bit of a pet peeve.  About Twitter.  And people who post their tweets to their blogs.  Instead of actually blogging!  Now I know that a lot of people use Twitter and think it is just the bee's knees.  Personally I don't really see the point but that is because I'm an old lady of 40 and just don't get all this newfangled social networking stuff.  (Actually I'm just too antisocial to want to be that in touch with people even if it is only through cyberspace).  I figure if you really want to spend your day tweeting with friends and strangers, well, that is your business.  But I have found an increasing number of people with blogs that are not really blogging at all but just posting their days tweets via some app (loud twitter I think).  Sometimes this is OK, like when the tweet is 140 characters of "what I'm doing now".  The part that irks me though is the conversations.  People talk back and forth on Twitter like they do in text messages except when posted to the blog I'm only seeing one side of the conversation!  So there is a bunch of random stuff that means pretty much nothing to anyone reading it unless they are also a follower on Twitter and take the time to go find the whole conversation thread.  This to me just seems like way too much work and I have to wonder why people bother?  Plus I go to people's blogs to get content and honestly tweets are not content.  Not even close.  Like I said, its a peeve. 

The reason I'm working from home today?  I had two trees removed from my backyard.  Mulberry trees to be precise.  Now I know Mulberry trees are kind of trash trees - the weeds of the tree world - but I liked them and didn't want to see them go.  But they were leaning big time and I like the back corner of my house more so they had to come out.  There is a power line that runs right along the fence line dividing my property from the people behind me.  Years of power company line clearing left the poor trees with all the growth on one side.  And the previous owner of my house did her usual thing, which was nothing, so the trees never received any TLC to help them grow as straight and tall as possible.  Instead they were leaning something fierce and a good wind or ice storm and those puppies were coming down. 

So I did the adult thing and got estimates, hired a company and scheduled the removal.  I missed the part where the guys climbed the trees because, you know, I'm working!  But I did get to see some of the action and it was kind of neat.  And LOUD!  It went much faster than I thought it would though and I am well pleased with the job.  My wallet is lighter of course - tree removal and plumbing repairs in the same day will do that.  I have before and after pictures but they are on a film camera so I need to get them developed before I can post them.  Yes, I don't have a digital camera yet.  I'm not a huge taker of pictures so I've never felt the need to own one.  Although now that I take trips every year or so with my travel buddy (aka Dad) I'm seriously thinking about getting one.  

And now I need to get back to work.  Until next time....
mythicalgirl: (I love you!)
The new computer is up and running very nicely these days.  I still have to download iTunes and copy all my music and pictures from the old hard drive to this new one.  And take a new backup.  And create a boot disk.  So, yeah.  I have internet, virus protection and games.  Other than music what else is there? 

I decided I needed to read a "classic" recently and for some reason got it in my head that it needed to be Jane Austen.  I can't recall ever having read a Jane Austen book.  Watched movies based on them, sure, but not read them.  I chose Sense and Sensibility as that is one of my favorite movies.  Finished it Saturday and them immediately watched the movie again to pick out the differences.  Amazingly enough I liked the book - once I got used to the more formal style of writing.  I still like the movie better but I can honestly say that I will likely pick up another JA book.

The Manual Of Detection by Jedediah Berry is much fun to read and I recommend it to everyone. 

Acacia: The War With The Mein by David Anthony Durham was also very good.  I saw the ending coming a long way off but that didn't detract from my enjoyment.  As anyone who reads this blog knows, I like books where POV rotates through the characters.  I like getting that big picture view of what's going on.  I'll read the next book when it comes out. 

The container garden is going strong.  Tomatoes and cucumbers and beans, oh my!  The carrots still have a ways to go though.  So my timing sucks - I either planted the lettuce too early or everything else too late as I have lots of lettuce to eat up and no other goodies to go with it.  Next year I will pay more attention to harvest dates and stagger my planting accordingly.

And it really needs to stop raining here for a while.  It is gray and yucky, the ground is squishy, and the humidity is just miserable. 

Now, back to work!
mythicalgirl: (woot)
I have been a very productive puppy this weekend.  The flower beds have been weeded, the car has been washed, and the house cleaned.  I also watched two movies from Netflix, finished The Manual Of Detection by Jedediah Berry, and started Acacia: The War With The Mein by David Anthony Durham.   What I haven't done so far is go to the grocery store but that can wait.  I have enough around here for breakfast and lunch tomorrow so there is no need to run off to Kroger right this instant.   

I currently have the towels in the washer and the dishwasher is almost done.  Now I just need to decide if I'm doing leftovers for dinner or if I'm going to treat myself and go out.  And if I do go out do I go for Tex-Mex or Sushi?  At the moment I can't decide but I'm pretty sure that has something to do with being pooped.  You know, I used to think weekends were restful.  Then I bought a house. 
mythicalgirl: (splosions)
The radishes were just as good Wednesday and Thursday as they were the other day.  Although I think I need to give the remaining plants a few more days before I pull them.  There only seem to be little ones left as I've already eaten the big ones!  The lettuce should be ready in another week.  Hopefully the beans and the cucumbers will be ready by the end of the month.  Everything else should hit harvest time around July. 

Other than my early trouble with thieving critters this container gardening thing has been pretty easy.  I would love to have a large, proper garden in the yard but I'm not sure my yard is suited for that.  It slopes gently on one side, not so gently on the other, towards the back of the property.  The only flat part at the far back by the fence doesn't have very good drainage.  I can see the sharply sloping side replaced with terraces for a garden, complete with rock walls and steps.  What I can't see is me doing the work, hiring a landscaper to do it, or how to promote it as positive feature whenever I go to sell the house. 

The flower beds are in decent shape.  They need weeding again and I really want to dig out those crappy yuccas on the south side of the house.  Several of the larger bushes need trimming back already due to all the rain we had this spring.  All of which I should do this weekend before it gets really hot again.  My lazy ass, however, would rather sit inside or out on the back porch and finish Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra.  I finally made it past the midway point last night and I'm determined to finish the last 400 pages this weekend.  

Right.  I need to finish the code I'm working on so I don't feel like such a slacker.  Today is a gym day so there is an hour of cardio in my near future.  The grocery shopping will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday cause I'm probably going to be pretty stinky when I leave the gym and once I get home I tend not to want to go back out again. 

Book reviews of Shadows Over Baker Street and Paper Cities, both anthologies, will be posted tomorrow, I promise! 
mythicalgirl: (witch)
The new AC Adapter is on it's way.  The site says it was shipped this morning so it should be here in a few days.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it fixes the problem.  I was waiting to get a new laptop until the new operating systems come out in the fall.  Alas, if this doesn't work I may have to get Vista. 

In other news they moved my desk at work.  We're going through this big floor move this week and next, getting everyone with their teams, etc.  I lost my window seat and my new location is louder and directly on one of the main traffic paths.  I am not amused.  I'll have to be sure to keep the iPod charged as I expect to have my headphones on a lot. 

And the container garden is planted!  I got up early yesterday (well, early for me) and decided to get the garden done before it got too hot.  April in Indiana and it was mid-80s yesterday.  More of the same today and them in the mid-60s tomorrow, which is more normal for this time of year.  Now I just have to be patient as I wait for things to sprout.  This is my first time doing a garden so we'll see how well it goes. 
mythicalgirl: (PMS)
My Sissy, the Bookbabe, sent me an e-mail earlier giving me shit for not blogging lately.  And no, I can't really bitch that much because I've done the same to her.  Hell, I've called her out here on this blog before!  So here I am with a post, although I can't guarantee it will be worth reading. 

Seriously, after the killer cooties episode at the end of last week I've done pretty much nothing other than work and veg out.  I finished Infoquake by David Louis Edelman, which I thoroughly enjoyed but have no intention of taking the time to review.  I also finished A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander.  Again, enjoyed very much, not going to review.  I don't know what it is but I have no desire to do any book reviews right now.  I just want to read for the enjoyment of reading.  I don't want to have to think about anything. 

Work has been work, as it always is these days.  I'm happy to have a job and I'm enjoying some of the stuff I'm getting to do but for the most part there is nothing going on right now that fills me with excitement.  The office politics have been even more pronounced since the RIF a few weeks ago.  And I am not a political creature by any means.  Sure, I can play the game.  But I think its stupid and a waste of time/energy.  I could say a whole lot more about the situation but I need this job so I'll shut up now.  

The big highlight for me lately is that I've been learning C# .NET.  In my spare time at work (Ha!) I've been going through my Head First book and doing the exercises.  It is fun and, right now, the biggest challenge of anything I'm working on.  Since I pick up new programming languages really fast that says a lot.  

Outside of work there is, well, not much of anything.  If it doesn't rain Saturday and has dried out enough I'll finally get to cut the grass.  It really needs to be done.  I'm going to have to set the mower at a higher level as it is. I can't imagine how bad it will be if I don't get it done this weekend!  And I'm taking a couple of days off around Easter.  We get Good Friday off as a holiday and I'm taking the following Monday and Tuesday.  If the weather is nice I'll be working in the yard doing mulch and flowers, stuff like that.  If the weather is not so nice I'll be inside hanging pictures and rearranging my office.  I don't know if I'll be ready to paint it as I've yet to pick out a color I like (lots of paint chips that I liked in the store, didn't like when I got them home).  I need to get that room set up so I can put a treadmill in there when I need to use my studio.  I am going to get a treadmill, I swear!  It will live in the studio most of the time but when I want to paint it will need to fold up and move out of the way.  Same thing when Mom and Dad come to visit as the studio then becomes their bedroom.   

If there was anything else on my mind its gone now.  We now return to radio silence....at least until I have something worthwhile to say. 

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