Scraps (n. ,fem., singular)

This seemed like such a good idea at the time. Actually I just meant is as a compliment to lunch, but I picked it up on the way to dropping off the table and chairs at 12:30pm and, a bit off-schedule, had not had lunch yet. I fully intended to eat the lunch I brought when I returned to the office, but the shake was so filling that I decided I would forgo the fish, asparagus and wild rice.

Of course, explain this to my plummetting blood sugar as I drove home.

Nothing that an emergency bowl of [granola] cereal couldn’t fix as the Tandoori Chicken roasted in the oven.

The maintenance crew did not return today but it was nonetheless impressive to walk into the Abyss and see a wide, navigable path and RA6 on the second workstation, just waiting to be finished. Which it now is, after some finishing touches in PSE, and ready to go for next Tuesday.

o_O The intarwebs ate the rest of my post… Um… lessee…

So there was more babbling about the comic but I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore [I think I'll actually put it in the RA... blog next Tuesday] and maybe there was some stuff about what I was going to do Friday night but whatever else was has disappeared into the ether. Maybe the ether-bunny will find it fun and leave me alone for a while…

I can see some of the Abyss floor. It must be announced.

So I decided today while at work that I had two choices for tonight: hide under the covers with the Black Dahlia book I’m reading or do /something/ about the crazy mess in the Abyss. Frankly the mess does nothing for me except make me claustrophobic and I hate the wasted space, so into the Abyss it would be.

Of course, I knew I’d need to bribe myself sufficiently so I picked up take-out on the way home as fortification (this also removed the necessary obstacle that would have been cooking dinner, thus taking up to much precious tackle-time). First on the list after dinner was putting the old table and chairs into the car, forcing me to take them to Goodwill tomorrow during lunch and getting them the hell-up out of the Abyss. Honestly things were looking somewhat civilized in there until I needed to put the chairs some place when I put up the new IKEA set.

That was when I saw it: proof that someone had been in my home. Gasp!

Now, living in an apartment complex with a maintenance staff means that there are certain other people with access to the insides of my home for various reasons (repairs, pest control, etc.). And, yes, when I signed the new lease this past weekend I did ask (again) about the Abyss door which has had a hole punched through it for the whole two years I’ve lived here (the original replacement was the wrong size and I guess no one ever followed up on it though I know I asked about it a few times). Furthermore, one more reason for my need to tackle the Abyss is that persons unknown would be subjected to it in order to eventually fix said door (hope spring eternal).

But I didn’t expect it to happen today!!!

No, the door still shows evidence of violence and now has a new hole where they took out the doorknob. The doorknob assembly leaning against my old Olympus typewriter being what clued me in that all was /not/ as I’d left it. (No, it was not that the things usually kept behind the Abyss door were now in /front/ of the Bureau of Fabric–yes the clutter is so bad that both table leaves, the slacker chair, a plastic shlef and the bed frame box being newly visible was not enough to alert me; does this give you an idea of the level of issues this room has?)

Still, I was already on a mission so the table top, leaves, legs and 3 chairs: into the car they went. After that I was a bit confused as to what to tackle next–there was just so much stuff everywhere. So I did the most logical thing. I hung up the dragon hanging organizer from IKEA over the folding closet door. At some point I’m sure I’ll actually store stuff in it, but for now it’s menacing flames are pointed towards the windows just in case someone gets a funny idea.

Next was the fabric. Oh my do I have a lot of fabric. The Bureau of Fabric? filled to the gills. But I did have a spare long tote that was hanging out empty (what I used for camping storage before I got the deep blue ones for Gulf Wars. Into the tote went a good bit of the fabric worth keeping (I had some tiny scraps that just went away-away) and then what to do with the tote: hah! under the bed it went (mostly willingly). Then I discovered the top-most tote in the craft closet was only about half full so more fabric when into it. Of course, I tried to be smooth and set the lid beside the tote, resting on the lid beneath it. This was stupid as it promptly slid down along the wall to the bottom corner of the closet. It can stay there, too, as having no lid meant I could pile the remaining fabric on top of the full tote for now. Serendipity! (I meant to do that, honest.)

I then took a nostalgia break and flipped through the 5 years of Latin scrapbooks the Bun offloaded to me a couple years ago. Some people’s Myspace pages will be eventually hit with high school photos, oh yes they will! I also managed to impale my left hand on a loose peace of hardware on the first book but at least I know when my last tetanus shot was! (two weeks ago Friday morning and the swelling finally went down last week)

Now I will say that the fabric and the excess furniture piled up, now being out of sight, makes a HUGINORMOUS difference in the room. I mean, there’s still beau coup stuff to be sorted and such in the rest of the room, but there is a serious amount of floor visible in all its beigeness. And and AND… my workstation desk with the tilted worsurface? Visible, accessible, and clear. I can see moving the Random Acts… stuff from the kitchen table to this workstation verra verra soon. How much do I rock?

A lot, I’d say. You would too had the progress been visible. I bet the maintenance guys will be impressed, too, if they ever actually come back…

So. The cruise date is coming up quickly (just 2.5 weeks to go if that!) and Mom still needed something for formal night. The idea was to maybe go shopping this weekend but that didn’t happen: Mom decided that she was home and was going to stay home. Instead we went to Catherine’s after work tonight with plans to have dinner at the Olive Garden once we were finished.

Since I don’t wear a watch I’m really not sure how long we were at Catherine’s but we succeded in finding Mom a fabulous outfit for formal night, a casual shirt for her, and a glitzy top for me (which will probably get paired with one of my many black skirts for formal night). Dinner was nice and leisurely and, since we were out, we decided to see if we could find appropriate shoes for Mom while we still had the outfit to match with us.

To the Mall we went, the big Mall, and proceded to cover about half of it. We found shoes right off (which is a bit of a surprise since it’s an odd color between grey and taupe we were trying to match) but then I suggested we look for a cute evening bag for her as well. Y’all, I never thought she’d go for it but she did and we traipsed through several stores trying to find just the right color bag for the outfit.

Of course we succeded and we found another cute shop while making our rounds that I will definitely have to return to when I have a clothes budget once again. [Stupid ER trip messed up some budgetary issues for the end of May, meh!] ['meh' really shouldn't be followed by an exclamation point as emphatic apathy seems to be a contradiction in terms however it was wholly appropriate to the sentiment.] As we left Macy’s we noticed that the crowds were getting quite light and that the kiosks were closing up. Mom checked her watch to see that it was a quarter til 9–no wonder we were starting to tire!

All in all it was a very successful trip and I can’t wait to see everyone’s face when they get a load of Mom’s plunging neckline!

Silly 3-day weekend, confusing me. I actually came quite close to not uploading the next installment of Random Acts…

And a clarification: Last night’s entry was not a ‘poor pitiful me please pet me’ post. I was venting a bit of frustrations, it’s my blog, I can do that. No need to set up a watch or some such nonsense (though I appreciate the concern…). I’m quite stable.

I’m down to 2 stitches from the original 4 as of this morning, so improvement has been seen. I’m going to try going it without the foam finger and see if I can manage not to make the remaining stitches angry. I must say, it’s nice to be able to bend my index finger again!

Aside from laundry at Mom’s (what does it say about me that I have enough articles to justify an entire load of just reds?) and cooking and such I have done very little of actual consequence. I have a feeling that this week might be a very busy one though, so expect things to change! Change is good, right?

Something at least.

Blah. That’s what today has pretty much been. I went to knitting partially because E would be there and it’d be one last chance to hang out before she leaves town for who knows how long but mostly because I knew if I didn’t go to knitting then I wouldn’t leave the house today. Just nothing was going on and I had no plans. Consequently, nothing much happened.

Tomorrow looks to be much of the same–maybe I’ll go over to Mom’s to do a load of laundry or something. On the one hand I enjoy the long weekend but with no plans, no one to hang out with, and no one seeking my company… well, it just emphasizes my solitary lifestyle all the more (like I need the reminding). Eh, maybe next week will pick-up, or maybe I’ll care less; something has to change or I’m going to end up even more cynical and possibly bitter over this whole mess of a life I’ve managed to assemble.

Today was a going away cookout for a friend.

It’s interesting to be someplace where you only know the host (at least conversationally; I’d met a couple of the other attendees once before) and virtually no one else. Now, used to be that such an idea would fill me with dread and I’d probably end up not going at the last minute because I knew I’d be a total wallflower–and this was in my highly extroverted phase!

Even though I’ve become more introverted overall I’ve somehow managed to become better at talking to strangers or getting in on coversations with them. I find this phenomenon totally ass-backwards but there you have it.

I’m not completely sure how to describe my friendship with E. We weren’t the super-close share our life story friends but there was never anything really off limits when we did talk. We met through a local knitting group, and that in and of itself connotes a certain level of open-discusion-ness but that doesn’t mean I’d consider everyone else in the group the same level of friend.

The thing about E is that she is totally real. Totally honest. And totally appreciative of just everything. Not that she’s a Pollyanna type or anything, she’s frank about things and people she may not like, though I can’t honestly think of anyone off the top of my head who earned that distinction. She’s incredibly self-concious of her place in the world and without trying totally makes me more aware of my impact. She’s the type of person that makes you want to be better than who you are so that you feel worthy of her friendship–even though she’d never even think that about you.

And she’s moving.

I find that incredibly sad now that I’m home but I really feel lucky to have known her these past couple of years and hope we do actually stay in touch. Friends like these are a blessing.

Because I’m just that fabulous, I had to share. (sarcasm, people, in case you missed it)

I get home, grab dinner and attempt to scan a contract to send zipping its way back across the continent. Oops! I don’t have any way to save something as a pdf on this computer (yet). Frankly it was getting somewhat complicated, the finding on a free pdf converter for Macs or figuring out where on my Mac there is one (I’m almost sure I’ve saved as a pdf before, I just can’t remember which program I used to do so), so I typed up a quick fax cover letter and drove back to the office to use the fax machine there. So much simpler (I could have saved myself the drive if I’d remembered to write down the fax number last night… durr).

Anyway, errand run, I come back home to start work on the Barony’s website. This is the weekend I’m going to start switching the site over. Er, well, this is the night I’m going to switch the site over. First I wanted to backup the current databases (just in case) and I managed to export them for whatever good that might do. No problem. Then I copy all the old files onto my harddrive (again, safekeeping), then I change the nameservers with the registrar and put in for the transfer. Boring, I know. But this was supposed to take so much more time in my mind. Why? I haven’t the foggiest.

Of course, when I went to set up the mirroring for during the transfer I ran into a problem. It was totally PEBCAK and I fixed it and then spent a frantic 5 minutes are so spazzing that I hadn’t verified all of the email forwards before switching hosts and OMG what if the other host has already disowned them! Eek! Of course this happened right as I clicked ‘OK’ on the transfer hosting bit so it hadn’t had time to change jack anywhere. And now the new site is up!

I’ll need to make some minor changes in some email links and set up the forum and gallery bits still, but that can wait until tomorrow at least. Frankly, my hand is starting to cramp, my eyes to cross, and I was already tired from an odd sleep pattern last night (kept waking up to the primes: 3, 5 and 7). I think I’m going to go zone on the couch for a while. If I’m feeling industrious RA6 may end up painted before the end of the evening. By the end of the weekend at least!

But I might just be looking at a really cool opportunity. There’s stuff to read and a decision to make, perhaps a question or two to ask, but it would strike another thing off of my 101 list while being a really cool feather in my cap. Maybe even a stepping-off point for something else! Now just to decide if I’m brave enough!

i.e., excuse me while I pat myself on the back

Palmie and I were talking today about it being a slouchy, comfort-food day and I mentioned that I was quite tempted to make a batch of cookies or some such, even though I’m trying not to senselessly indulge very often. Well, touch me because I resisted temptation and made fruit salad instead.

Of course, all bets are off tomorrow night…

I’ve had a serious case of the crankies lately and I’m only partly sure of the reason. Mainly its dealing with this ^#$#@# splint during the day. Sure I’m adjusting, and I even figured out how to shuffle cards without my left index finger, but it’s still a bitch typing with the splint. And the stitches started to itch today. That’s probably a good thing, but it’s driving me just shy of bonkers.

Still, that really shouldn’t be enough to make me truly cranky. Maybe it’s just change. A lot of my creative focus is narrowing, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about the comic as well as other off-shoot projects or similar ideas (writing and illustrating). While it’s totally my idea and no one else’s, I might be chafing just a wee bit at ‘neglecting’ other hobbies. That sort of thing has never bothered me before but I’m feeling a decided niche-shift that /is/ different. We shall see.

In other news (hah!) I’m watching this horrid Tom Selleck made for tv movie. Slow-paced (why does nothing seem to move fast enough anymore?) and horribly heavy-handed with the cinematography. Sad thing is? It’s the only thing on. I forsee a lot of catching up on my DVD collection this Summer, and much use of the Blockbuster Total Access. Oh yes.

if I wouldn’t sleep through the first 30 minutes of the Heroes finale. Or so one would think. I woke up to catch the last half and, really? I don’t feel like I missed much. That pretty much sums up the entire show for me: a whole bunch of build up and backstory but honestly not much happened each week. And it looks like next season will be spent in ancient Japan. Woo. Not.

So first day back at work with the foam-finger. Typing is possible with a minimum of typos, but the odd hand-position to keep the padding out of the way is a bit of a pain. Literally. It it weren’t so good at absorbing my clutziness as pertains to potential injuries of the stitched area I’d ditch it tonight. But it does and I won’t. I’ll just deal.

Seriously. It probably would have been fun, but not really a great idea to go ahead with.

Palmie got to my place around 11 and we headed out to Marianna. She drove as I was rather opiated at the time (not sleepy, only a smidge loopy, but I did seem to have more than a little trouble getting words to come out in the right order, tense, etc.) and it really didn’t seem to take all that long to get there, especially when you consider we gained an hour halfway there. Even though the gate warned us that they were selling tours for over an hour away, we actually got in on the 12:30 tour which gave us ample time to go over to the picnic area and have lunch.

Our tour-guide (a vounteer name Tom) was awesome and, even though he was probably totally scripted, his spiel was great. Lots of corny jokes and a couple that would have earned the tour a pg-13 rating, but we all appreciated them. I think I took about 100 pictures or so, not sure what’ll really turn out of them. Released to our own wiles we wandered one of the trails for a bit, blissfully lacking any other company, ending up back at the visitors center. The museum there was less than stellar and the gift shop not much better, but they did have a few cute oddities.

After an ice-cream break (fruit juice bar for me) we headed over to the Tunnel Cave. Um, well, it was kinda cool but a lot more disappointing. It was mostly one huge rock under which there was a little pass. I’m sure there’s plenty of significance there, but um… no.

We drove over to the camping area and saw where our slip would have been. It seemed like a nice enough spot, we’ll definitely have to give it a try one day when I’m not injured on 3 out of 4 limbs, and when I know how to work a grill.

About the injury level. Primary is the cut finger which would have been a bear to keep properly clean, elevated and out of danger. But also injured was my left shin where I’d seriously bruised it getting into the shower Friday morning (by that time I was stupid tired and feeling a bit like I was in Final Destination with all the little things going wrong). And to complicate matters that much more, the site of my tetanus shot is knotted up and red and painful (normal adult reaction for 30% of the population according to a quick search on MedLine, gee, fun) so if I wasn’t banging my shin on something I was catchin my arm somewhere. I was sort of a lame duck today

Now about the grill. See, we headed home after the trip over to the camp ground and I went to start the coals. Now I am fully aware of the ickiness of lighter fluid so I purposely did not buy the pre-soaked briquettes. I figured I could just light these and wait. Right? Er, no.

A couple of calls later we decided to go in search of a chimney which I thought I didn’t need. (I had read how to improvise one but didn’t really have a way to punch the holes in the bottom edge of the coffee can so no help there.) 3 stops and 2 detours later (what was going on at General Dynamics that they had both Hartsfield and Commonwealth blocked off by police?) we got back with the chimney. Which promptly smoked us off the patio and back inside.

Sigh… I knew you had to wait until the coals turned grey before dumping them into the grill but I figured it was a good idea to wait until the stopped actively burning as well (since, you know, my asbestos smock was at the cleaners). By the time that happened the coals had shrunk to about a third (or less) of their starting volume and looked pretty doggone pitiful in even my little portable grill. Palmie suggested we add some more coals and let the catch and that way we’d end up with enough heat.

I think we only got to medium heat and while it did a great job at toasting the buns, the burgers still needed to be finished on the stove, just to be safe. They were tasty though… ar 10pm. I’m a whiz in the kitchen and could probably rock some socks on a propane grill, but me and charcoal obviously need to come to an understanding!

Still, it was a fun day overall, ending with me baking chocolate chip cookies (store-bought dough, y’all, since the original plan had been to try and bake them on the grill after the burgers) while I introduced Palmie to the first 4 episodes of Girls Next Door, Season 1. Yay for being able to finally share one of my fandoms with her instead of the other way around

Not starring in one! Though, honestly, had it been an episode of er i would have been a lowly extra waiting in chairs the /entire/ show.

i am dispensing with the shift key since i’m only typing with one hand

y’all, new knives are sharp.

and you should never get a knife to do a scissors job.

learn from my mistakes, y’all

so, okay, i was trying to take the tag off of the grill brush but it wouldn’t just pull off so i grabbed the nearest sharp object which happened to be the paring knife i’d bought at lunch for the camping trip. I bought it because we will have minimal cutting needs and it came with its own nifty lucite sheath. A /tight/ luciite sheath. So i’m juggling the grill brush tag while trying to get the knife out when whoosh1 there it goes… right along the side of my left index finger.

oh my god the blood

i’ve never had a cut bleed that much, much less keep welling up even after i held it under water and applied pressure. i quickly realized i was completely out of my element so i did what an 31 year old would do; i called my mommy.

only her phone was off [she doesn't care for phonecalls so much so periodically forgets to pay that bill] so iu call her cellphone. twice. no answer. quick wound check; still bleeding. i tried to call palmie but she didn’t answer so i gave up and called urgent care.

they decided i should go straight to the emergency room. i arrived at 10;04 pm. at a little past 4am they finally brought me back to an exam room. an hour after that i was leaving the hospital with 4 stitches and a splint that makes me look like i’m wearing a foam finger. i went and had the rx filled and finally made it home at about 5;30.

soon [90 minutes] i will be able to call in to work, take a vicodin, and finally get some sleep. when i wake up i’m going to try and finish getting ready for the camping trip [hope springs eternal]… including getting the blood off of the pairing knife…

Several of them. 4 to be exact. All for a single night of camping. What, me, overprepare? No such thing!

I have the food list which also includes the ‘kitchen’ necessities, having mentally walked through the on-site preparation of each meal (it’s really not all that much, almost everything will be prepped and in the cooler prior to leaving, it’s just a matter of not forgetting a simple thing like napkins or cutlery). Then there’s the lodging list for the tent, the air mattress, the camp chairs, that sort of thing. Third is the clothing/toiletries list which, yes, I know it’s only one night, but I’m still a girl: this will not be one of those not-changing-clothes weekends that I’m sure some guys do with no problem. Nuh-huh! And finally there is the shopping list. Fairly brief it’s mostly a few ingredients per meal that need to be procured and miscellaneous stuff like a grill brush and heavy duty aliminum foil. Basics, really.

But the lists are made and the few bits of shopping will be taken care of over the next two evenings and prep-cooking on Friday. I’m really looking forward to this little overnighter and I hope that it goes well enough that I’m willing to do it again sometime.

Sigh… caught in a meme. But it was a slow news day anyway, so why not?

First: List 7 random facts/habits about yourself.

1. I really like the color pink but I like a good, deep red even better.
2. I honestly like to help people, but only if it was my idea to begin with.
3. I believe in ESP.
4. I use chopsticks to dip my cookies into my milk.
5. I talk to myself constantly, sometimes pretending I’m talking to friends to make it seem slightly less weird.
6. I feel a certain sense of victory when I go shopping and find 5 items for what one would cost me elsewhere.
7. I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to execute in one lifetime and that makes me a little sad sometimes.

Second: Choose another SEVEN bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog. [I really don't like to sick these things on others, so this is totally voluntary]

1. palmetto
2. berylq
3. rjlebeau
4. tlh_in_tlh
5. blindleadsblind
6. lady-isabella
7. faerytink

Third: Leave your seven tagged bloggers comments to notfiy them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions. [I doubt I'm going to do this, honestly, just play along if you like, nothing bad will happen if you don't]

I was trying to be so good tonight, honest. I went home, fixed supper, started laundry, did 40 minutes of pilates and worked on the Barony’s website. Dude, if it were only that simple.

See, first the was the washing machine incident. Just as I’m starting to load my delicates into the machine three really hot guys walk into the room. Why in the hell it happened I don’t know, but there was some knee-jerk reaction of ‘holy cow, cute guys, and me with a basket of worn undies; I know, I’ll try and cram the ENTIRE basket worth of clothes all at once and that will prevent any perceived embarrassment’. Sure. Didn’t work, I think I called more attention to myself, just as I realized that at least one of them was incredibly gay, so chances were they all were (judging by the ‘are you calling me fat’ convo I witnessed). Whatever, I got the machine started and beat a hasty retreat.

I go back to put the clothes in the dryer and the room is blessedly empty. There were a couple of machines to choose from, including one that spends more time broken than not. It seemed to be in working order tonight but something told me not to ues that one, instead choose the other open machine. It was only after I loaded the clothes in that I noticed there was a little bit of time left on it! Score! I finish my pilates and go to check the clothes in the dryer. Still damp, but I figured it had to do more with the short time allotted and the chill could be due to my workout running 20 minutes past the dryer time. Sure. Not.

45 minutes later, after working on the Barony’s website for a while, I got back to get the clothes. They should definitely be dry now. Nope. Granted, tumbling around in no-heat for an hour did manage to de-lint them and spin out some of the moisture but dry? No. And me out of quarters. Luckily I always have a back-up about five minutes away: Mom’s house. I swear I bring more laundry home /now/ than when I was actually a college student.

I’m still amazed I made it home only missing the first 10 minutes of Heroes.

I just realized that the most recent brainchild of palmie and scraps had not yet been discussed here! (what an omission!)

It all started more than a week ago. I was thinking about my Script Frenzy! script and how I had not clue one yet when I had a flash of all of us down in that mine tunnel in Dahlonega. I have no desire whatsoever to write some mining-period piece, but then the mind made this lateral slide to the time my family visited the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. For some reason I decided that a cave of some sort would be a good setting for the Script that has no plot even now.

Some research was in order and, with the Marianna Caverns only an hour away, hands on research seemed much better than merely reading about them. The following is a paraphrase of the email conversation had shortly thereafter:

me: I think I’ve decided the script is going to be set in a cave sort of place. Looks like I’ll be taking a field trip to Marianna this month.
palmie: If you go, take me!!!
me: what weekend are you free?
palmie: I’m booked on the 12th but the others are open.
me: let’s say the 19th then?
palmie: cool!
me: you know, if I was brave I’d say let’s take the tent out there and camp overnight.
palmie: <_ < >_> <_< It will have been a month since our last adventure...
me: I can get a spot for under $20... should I?
palmie: yes! wohoo! I'm going to a real-live cavern!
me: done! Heaven help us, we're going camping!

Now, it's not like I haven't been camping before. Just not without scads of SCAdians on the same trip. Or in a cabin at Summer Camp. This will be the first actual 'roughing it' camping trip I've been on. (Well, okay, there are water and electric hookups at the campsite and restrooms 150ft away, but still!)

After we made the reservation palmie discovered that the astronomical association will be out there with their telescopes that night, so she had to squee some more like the space nerd she is. But at least it should prove interesting and give us something to do that night =)

I still have no clue about the script other than the location. I'm trusting that the expedition next weekend will spark some sort of inspiration.

Such a distracting evening, I almost forgot.

The phone rang about 6:15 this evening but it wasn’t a number in my caller ID. It seemed somewhat familiar however. It should have, it was the office. Boss had gone back to pick up Otis (cute and fluffy extraordinaire) after a late appointment and our salesman, in a fit of help, decided that he would lock up the office while passing through. Only thing was, Boss and Otis were out back and Boss’s keys were in his office. Locked up.

Of course we have spare keys to his office only they were in my office. Also locked. Mom has a spare key to my office but the whereabouts were unknown (I suspect them to be kept on her keychain, not in her desk drawer). So I went back out to the office to open my door so he could open his.

When I got there I was treated to a very energetic Otis (who, for the most part, does a lot of puppy-napping during the day) who had–get this–”learned to bark”. It’s been two weeks since Boss acquired Otis and not a bark had been heard from the furball. Turns out the key was a robotic flipping dog toy kept in the kids toybox (we are both pet and child friendly there, work stopping frequently when either arrive). Said toy seems to be the only thing so far to elicit the gravelly growl-bark of Mr. Otis.

One can only hope that this vocal discovery does not lead to a loquacious office-pet. After all, he is composed of Yap and Yap, seeing as he’s been taciturn so far makes one wonder if he really is part terrier.

But for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. Seriously, I got nothing.

But at least we’re half-way through the work-week, another weekend on the horizon. I stayed a little late at work today to make sure all the bills were gathered so tomorrow’s deadling will be met first thing. After that I believe my brain will be mush. Zombie Thursday, Part Deux.

Well, okay, it was only one margarita, but it was a big ‘un!

Is it bad that the above could describe more than one weekend in recent history? Or that I can’t decide which one I should apply it to?

Anyway, I owe you the ‘rest of the story’ from the Dahlonega trip, don’t I, so I’ll do that one first.

* * *

When we left our intrepid travellers they had just finished up at the Gold Mine of unintentional comedy. We headed back to berylq’s home to drop off our purchases and continue the day on foot. First we went up to the observation floor of the building across from her house to see the view. We were a little early for sunset, but it was still very cool. Then down the hill to site-see. Only hunger won out and instead we stopped at one of many Mexican restaurant’s in town.

Now, you have to understand, as palmie and I drove through Georgia we saw several signs with long words beginning in ‘M’ that looked like Margarita(ville). They were not, of course (except the one adv. for a restaurant), and one was even a church (which we decided we’d definitely be willing to join under that name!), but we still had Margaritas on the brain. Finally, Saturday evening, Margarita-time had come!

Waitress: What can I get you ladies to drink?
Me: Margarita.
Waitress: What kind?
Me: o_O
Waitress: We have regular and Texas margaritas?
Me: Regular.
Waitress: What size?
Me: Big.
Waitress: But what size?
Me: Okay, here’s what I want: Regular Margarita, on the rocks, with salt.
Waitress: Size?
Me: Big.

Palmie and berylq ordered the same, with much less conversation. In our defense we had just sat down when she came by and hadn’t even looked at the menu enough to find the beverage section (on the back I think) much less notice the 4 different sizes available. Four sizes, people! So when it came, we were trying to figure out if it was the 24, 32, or 45 oz. version (it obviously wasn’t the 16). Turns out, Big = 32oz, but it wasn’t bad for the price (8.75 I think) and it was a /good/ margarita. The food was good, too, but the margarita rocked.

Afterwards we wandered around the dispersing Bear in the Square festival. A festival you say? Why yes! Turns out, back a decade or more ago, a baby black bear wandered into the town square and climbed a tree. Some local folk musicians decided this was a perfectly reasonable reason to start a folk music festival and now you have Bear in the Square. (I kid you not…) When I heard about all this I promptly informed berylq that she had moved to Stars Hollow (the little Connecticut town of Gilmore Girls).

So what did the margarita actually make me do? Well, nothing scandalous I assure you, it just made me sleepy (actually, it was more the exertion of the day and the lack of sleep the previous night PLUS the margarita that made me crash on the sofa when we eventually wandered back to berylqs). Luckily berylq and palmie are not the type to take issue with this and are rational adults capable of carrying on their evening while I snoozed.

Sunday morning meant packing up the car and heading to breakfast at the Wagon Wheel again and then on to IKEA. Y’all, IKEA rocks but make sure you get the bag cart deal when you first get up to the second floor. Your shoulders will thank me, I promise! I think we spent about 4 hours in shopping heaven, wandering through the displays upstairs (2 hours-ish) followed by a surprisingly yummy and rather inexpensive lunch in the cafeteria, then back downstairs to the real shopping areas to get all the pretties we looked at upstairs (well, not all, not nearly all, there will be more trips, and catalog orders) and then to flat-pack-heaven (Self-Service furniture) where we picked up a dolly for the big items berylq and I were purchasing.

End result? I think our combined total was just over $520, but considering I bought a table, 4 chairs, and 2 nightstands (along with a bunch bedding and other stuff) that’s not a bad receipt at all! And it all fit in the car! Elektra was filled to the gills (well, the headrests in the back seat) but it wasn’t a squeeze or anything. Palmie and I said our good-byes to berylq and headed separate directions to home.

The trip home was’t nearly as grueling as such things usually are. We seemed to even be making better time for some reason (jokes about my purse being the Tardis for hiding my sunglasses and us making better time because we were heading ‘downhill’ were definitely made) but a dinner stop put us back home around 8ish.

But there was one more stop on the way that I really should include here. On the way through Georgia we also saw a very distinctive sign that advertised a Playboy Outlet somewhere just off the highway. Owing to my recent infatuation with the Girls Next Door show, it was given that the possibility of a Playboy outlet would thrill me to no end. Not that we were going to stop on the way: it was already going to be o-dark-thirty when we got to Dahlonega. But on the way home…

So about halfway home we started looking for a similar sign on our side of the highway. We’d gone so long without seeing one that we’d thought, for a moment, that we’d missed it (oh well, we said, there’s always the Dragon*Con trip) then there it was, in the middle of nowhere on exit 97 (we agreed to never forget that one). It was… disappointing. I was really hoping for more variety but honestly? It was all scary leather ‘clothing’ with the bunny head in contrasting leather colors. And the shoes… oh, my, nothing like the playboy brand shoes you find in the local stores, no, these were jelly heels. Heels, y’all. Jelly. Heels. Oy to the vey. But I did pick up a pair of pink and silver bunny post earrings. Of course, because of the big biker party that weekend the cash register wasn’t hooked back up yet so I had to go to the adult store next door to pay for them.

So that’s the rest of the Dahlonega trip!

* * *

And in other news, RA #2 is up!