Not quite Black Friday.

First off, the internet. Is there really any need to get up at 'o-dark-hundred' to brave the cold and rapid wildlife to get to a store at 4 a.m. just to find that perfect bargain? From my vantage point of sleeping in until 10, snuggling with my beasties and the borrowed beasties of nephew and niece, the answer is a resounding 'No!'

We were talking about that last night after desert and whislt enjoying a really yummy double bock, and the consensus is that, recession or not, we'd rather forgo the early morning insanity and relax. We also agreed that we'd all quit if we worked for stores that made us get up at three a.m. to go to work the day after Thanksgiving.

Supper was, once again, a study in organised chaos. We got the turkey in the oven at 8:30 a.m. without a hitch, well, other than having to get up at 7 a.m. for mum was as good as her word and got us up early. Yay. The small details got taken care of so that we had time to relax and play when my brother got here with his family. Did the family photos for Yuletide cards, etc., and then all finished getting dressed for the day. Obviously, the beasties were for the photo, but mum and I were dressed from the top up and running about in flannel jammie bottoms.

My aunt is doing well. She has her heart surgery on the 12th, but resolutely ignored that fact and took over as de facto head of the kitchen. I'm good with that. Just tell me what needs doing and where to take care of it, and I'm a happy little helper. Had oysters again, and they were much better than last years, a bit fatter and saltier, and really good.

Should pop off for a bit to get lunch for the beasties. They asked if they could have ice cream first. I don't see any problem with that. *grins*

Get ready, kids! It's that time :D

Yes, time for another series of Nanny Ashtoreth's Reports from the River Styx!

Ignore the fumes in the background, it's the vodka. Yes, mum's hidden away the wine until tomorrow night and has inflicted a blend of pomegranate and cranberry juice spiked with vodka upon me. Three sips and I swear my cheeks were flushed pink and supper was a giggly affair. Afterwards, dishes were done by the beasties whilst I got the spinach ready for tomorrow. I had the choice of getting up earlier to do this, and earlier was 6 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. and I, ever in the mode of sleep-in as long as you can, chose to fry up the pound of bacon and onions tonight.

The drive up was, thank all the gods, boring and mostly uneventful. There is a gob load of new construction, and a new bridge ramp contraption that now arcs off I-95 to Towson, and the beasties pointed out a cemetery from our new vantage point. It was the Gardens of Faith, and the place where many of my family is buried. From the old ground view, I never knew we passed so close by the relatives, and now we have a new tradition of waving to them and sharing our news on the last legs to mum's house.

We're mostly ready for tomorrow and the 21 relations that will be arriving for fun and mayhem. My nephew has informed us that he is not only staying the night tomorrow night, but another 3 as well, and that they are coming over so early that they will be eating breakfast in the car. I just laughed and agreed. Five year old logic can be fun, too, and well, I wouldn't mind having them come to be with us for 3 days or with egg on their faces at 9 a.m.

Going to have a nice warm bath, remember why I don't drink vodka... oh the sleepies, and then get the air mattresses and sofa bed ready before I settle in and continue to pirate air time on-line *piratical grin*

Happy Thanksgiving

A bit early, I know. Trying to relax a bit this evening before the rest of the packing in the morning. Tonight is laundry and getting my list ready. I hope to get on the road by 10, but noon is more realistic. As long as we can hit Baltimore before 2 pm and the northern bound crowds begin to clog I-95, we'll be golden.

There's no telling what tomorrow will bring preparation wise at my mother's, hence the early wishes. Thursday is right out, and hopefully I will be able to carve some time out for myself to at least have a few hours Friday night to check in.

Still ready to duct-tape the beasties to the wall. They not been at all cooperative, so after making sure that they each have a decent set of clothes for Thursday, they can go nekkid the rest of the time as far as I'm concerned. Right, time to get a few more loads run through the machine and then my own mischief to get up to. I hope.

Oh yes, one more thing...

Why is our national harvest festival celebrated so late? *headdesk*

Pattern

Because I don't know where else to put it.

Legwarmers/Spats[crochet]

With size "I" hook, chain 53.

Row 1: Double Crochet (dc) in third chain (ch) from hook, dc in each of next three ch, *skip the next two ch. Dc in each of the next four ch, ch 2, dc in each of the next four ch; repeat from * across to the last 6 ch. Skip next 2 ch, dc in each of the next three ch, 2 dc in the last ch. Ch 3 and turn.

Row 2: Dc in the front loop of each of the first four dc, *skip next two dc, dc in front loop of next three dc, (dc, ch 2, dc) in next ch 2 space, dc in front loop of next three dc; repeat from * across to the last 5 dc. Skip the next two dc, dc in front loop of last three dc, two dc in top of the turning chain.

Rows 3-26: Repeat Row 2. Finish off.

Edge: Single Crochet (sc) evenly all the way around leg warmer. Join with slip stitch to first sc. Finish off and weave in all the ends.

Make two of the above.

For lacing: Take two lengths of ribbon no more than a 1/2 inch wide, and each about nine feet long, lace through the first and last spaces of every other row, finish by tying into a bow at the end.

As close to 'Fin' as it will be

Stayed up chatting last night so that I could validate the behemoth. Cheers! Yes, I could have cheated and entered an Atlantic time zone, gotten the purple bar, and then changed time zones back again... but that would be no fun and that would be cheating. Cheat once in NaNo and might as well cheat the whole damned month.

Am not writing on Punctuated Reflections today. I might get a few more words in between Wednesday and Sunday, but I'm not going to be bothered one way or another if I don't. It is, for all intents and purposes, finished and ready to be put to bed until editing in February.

In fact, I might use the remainder of the month to rethink the writing approach and plan for 2009.

But first, I am getting more coffee.

All signs point to staying in bed

I don't normally put much store in these things, but today, they seem to be a good reason to just stay quiet and stay in bed.

Sun Sign- Taurus: You're drawn to activities that don't interest the people around you. Your needs are different from those of your friends and neighbours.

Moon & Rising Sign - Scorpio: You see so much around you that could be better, and many of your ideas would work if they were enthusiastically applied. Getting others to hear you as a supporter and not a critic will be key.

Got the windows sealled and ready for winter, which has arrived with pronounced determination, and stocked up on the comfort foods of mac-n-cheese, so there is now no need to go back out. Going to hibernate for the time being and begin getting my ducks in a row. Think I might take the next two days off whilst the beasties have school, just to have some solitude for a few hours before the crazy of holiday travel begins.

My holy glazer

More or less. The eldest decided to come to work with me today. He's been getting squirrelly with waiting for his orders to come through, and I don't blame him. So, Peter put him to work helping to install the windows on the recreated Chapel of 1667 today. Poor eldest beastie, he picked a hella cold day to work outside. It even snowed for a bit today.


The recreated chapel.

He was a frozen popsicle by the end of the day. Got the compie with me, had a warm shower, warm food, and is now crashed in his warm bed. The other two are finishing up their supper and settling in for a quiet evening. Hooray.

Thursday's still pushing the envelope

The long standing aversion to Thursdays took an interesting turn yesterday, and in a somewhat positive way. Alright, it was very positive, but still a surprise and still occurring on a Thursday and catching me off-guard. The Thursday wariness will still stand.

A brief time-line is order:

Tuesday - Beastiette spilt cream soda on notebook keyboard. Or cat did, according to Beastiette, which is likely as Puck thinks she can type better than we can; or she is just protesting the lack of food in her bowl by making herself an immovable obstacle until said bowl is replenished. Keyboard dried by Beastiette and first cleaning administered by me when I got home from work.

Wednesday - Second cleaning administered. Keys still slightly sticky and slow to rise [mostly the space bar, control, shift, and keys a, s, d, f, g. ASDFG!

Thursday - No computer. *blink* *BLINK*

"Mum! Guess what, guess what! I got paid and the notebook keys were crunchy so I took it up to BestBuy and the Geek Squad. They can't clean it today, but it will be ready tomorrow."

Which was terribly sweet and thoughtful of the eldest Beast, but if he'd told me whilst I was still at work, I could have borrowed more modern technology for last night. The Toshiba needs a new hard drive, and kept crashing on me [that goes up to the Toshiba store in Annapolis on the way up for Thanksgiving holiday with my mum] and the old Dell... well, it is an old Dell, enough said.

But, I'm looking on the bright side. The beasties were thinking of me and that gave me warm fuzzies all over, and I will have a happy and cream-soda free keyboard tonight. Beastiette also knows not to have drinks [or cat] so close to the computer again.

Hopefully I'll be able to watch The Devil's Whore tonight. Other than one of the best mini-series titles ever, the cast looks impressive and I'm a sucker for period dramas, so there we go.

Writing vent

While I will rarely do this, sometimes I need to vent in a safer space where I know who is reading. Today, I did so in an entry over in my IJ [also called Nanny Ashtoreth].

I did debate for a while whether or not to post it into my PanHistoria blog, but then thought it was well enough where it was as a pressure release. It served its purpose and now I can turn my thoughts to more fulfilling creative endeavours.

I iz a NaNoCat

Cutest word tracker, ever.

Visiting the last century

I am at the museum's visitor centre working the meet-n-greet desk for the lady who normally does this, but, obviously, she needed the day off. Normally this is not a problem, and normally I have advanced warning so that I can be prepared for days like today. I was asked to step in for her at 10 am, and so find myself thrown back to a strange, old world.

I am using IE to do my web browsing today, and this version is so old that it doesn't even have the 'new tab' options. It also does terrible things to my IJ layout. E-mail? Right out unless I go straight to gmail because I cannot figure out how to configure Outlook on this old thing. I think it is coal fired. My work computer is at least steam-powered... I am not a steam-punk aficionado for nothing, my friends... and I really am pining for my HP notebook.

It is cold and raining, so visitation is nil and I am without my NaNo idea notebook, so I'm pretty much sitting here watching the rain fall and working up the bravery to attempt a bit more web browsing. If not, I'll find some scrap paper, or raid the photocopier for paper, and work on other ideas and outlines until I can get home and back into the 21st century.

Ah the past, it is a strange country when one does not have the proper tools to tweak technology.

On the love side of the relationship today

I have a love/hate relationship with Verizon. Today, though, they are on the love side of the line. I am back to normal connectivity and not the trickle the interweb information streams have been of late. I also think that the construction company working on Chancellor's Run road expansion might wind up being sued at least once before this absurdity is completed.

I have no illusions that I'll find any recompense for the few days of frustration here, although I would use it to get more minutes for the mobile as that has been more reliable with making calls since Friday. Love to be in the middle of a conversation with my mother and hear a horrendously loud crackle and then have the line be dead for anywhere from 3 to 20 minutes. This got old back in June.

On the other hand, one reason for this headache is now resolved. The other three are still living at home. Stresses of the season no doubt, but they've been mighty cantankerous this weekend. Also looking at my diet which has been entirely too filled with processed foods and sugar, etc., because of ease and convenience. This headache is the signal to forget that load of garbage and get the slow-cooker out. Hopefully now that fuel prices have gone down the cost of fresh produce will begin to reflect that, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that account just yet. Still, with a bit of creativity, I'll get there and wean myself off the junk again. All it will take is some extra planning each weekend and preparing meals in advance and then freezing them for taking to work instead of skipping lunch or grabbing crap at the deli.

Speaking of which, time to begin thinking about chow-time for the beasties. *resists temptation to get Papa John's to deliver as it's a holiday. Then again there's always Chinese... or Indian.*

Dr Wicked

Wow. I think that I have found the Grail of smashing writer's block.

Write or Die!

Off to give it a go.

Do they even read their own book, part II

Monks brawl at Jerusalem shrine.

Yes, you read that right.

First Golden Calves, now this. Where will it end?

Remembrance Day

A new page.

I'm getting a bit old for this nonsense, and find that as time progresses and technology gets taken down to the dumbest denominator [please see Facebook, Myspace, etc.] that I am becoming more and more of a Luddite.

What brought this on, you might ask. To which I will answer: the latest idiocy pulled on the paying customers at LJ. If you are unaware of this, do count your blessings. If you know what I'm referring to, then you might also be courting other blogging options, as well.

I do think that I'll be using my IJ as the primary blog, still, but will be happy to cross-post the public entries here. The big drawback that I find here is the lack of options with the security settings for individual posts here: it seems to be an all or nothing approach, unlike IJ and Wordpress.

That said, and those concerns addressed, I am still more willing to give Blogger a fair chance as I still have no faith in LJ. My faith and confidence in them dropped to nil a few years ago, and they stopped getting my money for their service. They are still not going in a direction that will reverse my decision. My IJ is a permanent account, purchased for the amazingly low price of $25 when IJ was still the unheard of alternative for LJ. The only thing that I'll be changing about it is the name when I finally get my rename token. Yes, the new name will be nanny_ashtoreth. I was going to go to the effort and rename my LJ, but alas, that will not be happening because they have once again proven that they do not listen to their paying customers and I am more than happy to put that money aside for continued support of PanHistoria.