It's starting to feel like home...

This is our Yule/Christmas tree. Yes, that is technically a Halloween tree (a friend gave it to us last year) but our Yule/Christmas tree hadn't made it over yet and I kind of missed out on a lot of Halloween this year. Plus, purple lights! anyway, I also decided that while we are unpacking, I might as well decorate for Yule/Christmas so I don't have to do it later. So far, so good, I think. Although, I don't really have suitable pictures of the rest of the house yet. The camera on my phone is crappy and I just haven't had the time or energy to find my Nikon and take proper pictures (sorry about the poor picture quality here). I will this week.

The move went pretty well. I think only one thing got broken and it was small. We had some help, which was much appreciated. However, it is taking forever to unpack because Amanda works full time and I have been doing homework. We have also had to run back to Amanda's parents house and go to the family Christmas party. We've done some shopping, went out to find fire wood, run errands, and had company. And to top it all off, I have been having computer problems. So I am going to try and break things down in a short list and explanations because I have lots to do today.

1. Windows 10 and my computer hate each other. After upgrading to Windows 10 for free, at the recommendation of a friend, my computer began to rage war. Display drivers crashed repeatedly and I got the blue screen of death several times. Also, I could sit right in front of the wireless router and have no internet. Apparently this is a problem for Toshiba and Windows 10 because it's on their website. One of my friends came over to downgrade me back to Windows 8.1. But then we had to download drivers, I had to reinstall Microsoft office only for some reason our product key didn't want to work, so I spent an hour and half on the phone with a nice lady who I couldn't totally understand. We had to link my computer to hers so she could do things on mine. Then here were the updates and oh yes, I had to go and turn the program off that looks for updates for me because it was eating up all the CPU and I couldn't do anything. Now, it's fixed. I think. But this computer is weird and Amanda is going to get me a new one for my birthday. So I just have to keep this one running until March. 

2. We have lots of books. We have 4 of the tall, 5 shelf bookcases full of books. Well the bottom row on at least three of those bookcases has Amanda's vinyl records on them. We keep finding boxes that have books in them so Amanda thinks we are going to need at least two more bookcases. It was so funny because when we were getting some things we needed for the apartment, I told her we were going to need at least 4 bookcases. She didn't want to believe me. We were going to have the second bedroom be an office, but Amanda thinks at this point, it's just going to have to be a craft/ library. I'm okay with that. 

3. We have had lots of company. Our friend Chris comes over at least once or twice a week, which is great because she is one of our most low maintenance friends.  She's very calm, very laid back and all around good company. Birdy and Dram live a couple of block away and have been coming over almost every day to help me unpack or help with my computer. Sometimes not a lot of unpacking gets done because I have just been so exhausted, but Birdy built two of my bookcases, the tv stand, and fixed my computer. She has also helped me out when I have had to do some homework by making me tea or coffee. She is going to come over today at some point too.  

We also had the twins come up for an over night stay. I think it was too soon. I was ready for them to leave when they left to have lunch with their grandmother. They came back after that, which really was fine. I just don't think we were ready to have over night company yet. 

4. Showers and cats go hand in hand for me now. Firstly, Narcisa loves to play in the bath tub, specifically she likes to attack the shower curtain liner and leave little paw prints all over the tub. Secondly, she likes to watch me show, as in sit on the side of the tub and stare. We had a kitty who did that some years ago, so this isn't a new thing, what is new, is that she thinks she wants to jump in with me while I am showering. Um no. I am already having a hard time taking showers as is. I actually had to take part of a nerve pill to take my first shower in this apartment. I have a thing with new bathtubs, it's like I have to get used to them before I am truly comfortable with them. Also, there is the slipping factor, the fact that I used to get burned every time I took a shower because someone would flush a toilet or turn on water somewhere else in the house, and a few other things. Amanda thinks it also has to do with my back. Either way it sucks and I need to get over it fast. 

5. I have been so tried lately. All the movement is good for me and I have enjoyed unpacking, moving stuff around and getting out to explore my new surroundings. But it is taking its toll. I am still dealing with PCOS, my fibromyalgia is flaring up- today I am hurting pretty badly, and my back is giving me grief. Something new has come about as well. My friend Chris thinks it is just my tendonitis but I have never had it hurt in my hand before. While tendonitius might be the case for my writs, I think I actually strained something in my hand. It happened in the move and I think I aggravate it when I get up from chairs. Even doing simple things seems to bother it. It is better, but it was cause for concern earlier in the week.

6. Family. My Dad's leg is doing better, apparently. I still think it looks awful. It's still hurting him terribly, but he's working and sounds kind of upbeat on the phone. 

I just got off the phone with my Mother and my cousin Shi-chan. I have been so excited and happy for my cousin Shi-chan, she has this amazing boyfriend, who is a friend of mine from  high school. Anyway, they are happy together and apparently he moved in with them. Most people who have been following me for awhile know how vicious my aunt can be. Apparently she was up to her usual shit of tearing into Shi-chan (you know emotional abuse) and Shi-chan's boyfriend stood up for her. Oh but my bitch of an anut just can't have that. She needs complete control over Shi-chan. so now she's calling everyone trying to find out the guy's last name so she can get a restraining order on him. she wants him out of her house now!  She wants to get a restraining order on her daughter boyfriend because he stood up for the daughter she was abusing... Yeah... fucking bitch!

My Grandparents seem to be doing well. They are taking their yearly snowbird trip to Texas. So far so good! Hopefully they have a nice, easy time, and have fun. Last year Grandma fell and hurt herself. I insist to the universe at large, that there will be none of that this year.

7. Finally, last night was a good night. I made Cavatini for dinner and then we played Start Wars Monopoly until midnight. That's late for us these days, really late. We didn't even finish the game, but I was kind of starting to fall asleep, so we had to call it quits. It was a lot of fun!

  

Must acquire a shield, I hope it's allergies and not ear mites, and I saved how much?!

It's pretty sad that it's come to this. Since we learned that Yoda is diabetic and can't have any human food, he's become desperate for it. He's knocked so many things over in my room trying to get to my desk where I sometimes eat. He's tried to go right for my plate and I'm fighting him a lot of the time to stay back. And he's not the only cat to come after my food, Galen and even sometimes Ellie join in. So investing in a shield to put my food behind sounds like a necessary plan of action. Will I actually do this? Probably not, but it's a nice idea. Plus, I can hide from sad, begging eyes. No, locking them out of the room isn't really an option. Why? Because they cry and yowl and it's sad and they are damn loud!

Speaking of Yoda-chan, he's been scratching his ears a lot in the last couple of days. I've looked up what that could mean and as far as I can tell, it's either allergies (which he has) or it's ear mites. EWWWW! I am hoping for allergies but to be on the safe side, I'm going to clean his ears and rub them down with some warm olive oil. the weird part is that neither of the other kitties are scratching and I really don't think if it were truly ear mites that they would stick to just one cat.

This morning I got up early because I was going to meet a friend at Hastings for coffee and just to visit. At first I didn't want to get out of bed. For once I wasn't hurting too badly, was comfortable, and everything was soft. But the minute my second alarm went off there the kitties were fussing at me to get up. But the neighbors were up as well, stomping around so loud that it was impossible to go back to sleep. So, I got up, fed the cats, got dressed, and ate my own breakfast. Before I left I gave Yoda his morning insulin shot and muttered my aggravation over how loud my elephant neighbors were being. Really, they are that loud. The stomping is so heavy that it vibrates our furniture! And when they aren't home, their poor dog cries and cries. I would complain to them or to the landlord but Skoora's parents made me promise not to, which really sucks because when my friend Christine B. was here for a visit, they woke her up every morning. Oh and if you have a headache or a migraine, the stomping is at just the right decibel (or what ever you call it) to make your head throb.

Anyway, I left the house with a coupon in my purse for one of the craft stores and headed over to CDA for coffee. I had a very nice visit with my friend. She has a job interview today and I really hope she gets the job. (Crap! I left my phone in the car and she was going to text me!) I wished her luck when we parted, her going to get a nicer shirt for the interview, and me to Jo Ann Crafts.

You know, I wasn't planning on getting much or really anything at all, I just wanted to get out of the house a little and see what I could see. Some of the fabric was on sale for half off, so I thought I would see if there was some that just grabbed me because I've been wanting to make a shirt. Some did but I wasn't sure how much I would need so I decided to go look at some patterns to get an idea and lo and behold there was a sign saying that Simplicity patterns were 5 for $5! You can bet your ass I jumped on that, patterns are so expensive. In the end with the fabric being half off and the patterns being a veritable steal, I only spent $14 and saved $90. Oh and I couldn't use my coupon because the fabric was already on sale, so I still have it for another day.

Since I forgot the Redbox movie (grabbed the case but not the DVD) I have to go back out again today. I didn't really want to do that, but you have to do what you have to do and its an excellent opportunity for me to get my phone out of the car.

Okay, that's really disturbing! I just got another notice that I have been logged out from another location and do I want to log back in. UGH!   

A semi quiet start to the new year.

Rum Geisha © Hannah Richardson

First, I think I need to change and update all of my passwords again. It could be nothing but it could be something. I just opened up blogger and started a new blog where I got a message stating that I just logged out of another location and would I like to log back in. Grrrrr! 

My New Year started quietly with a few games of Rummikub and me coaxing Skoora's mom into drinking a whole bottle of wine. She's not really a drinker. The 1st was spent taking my time in doing almost nothing. I didn't go to the family new year's party, instead I went to Skoora's work and kept her and her assistant manager company for an hour or so. After we got home her parents came in along with a friend from their church and we visited with him meanwhile a Monster High movie was playing in the background. Skoora was kind of nervous about getting ready for her residency. 

Skoora worked the 2nd which made things more difficult for her in terms of being ready to go. Still, we got her packed, last minute errands run, and off to the airport in time for her flight. I was a bit worried since the North East was getting slammed with a winter storm but her plane landed safely, the only down side was that she had to spend the night in the airport last night until the bus could take her to the T (subway) in Boston this morning. I stayed up until about 3 am worried even though we sent text to each other and I spoke to her on the phone a couple of times. And despite not getting but a few hours of sleep the night before and being very tired, I just couldn't go to sleep until I knew she was out of the airport and on her way to the college campus. Then it was a matter of her not being next to me in bed. But exhaustion finally won and I fell asleep. 

I actually slept until a little after 1 in the afternoon. I really hate sleeping that late but didn't let myself get too upset about considering the circumstances. I haven't really done a lot today either. I've mostly played Game of Thrones Ascent on facebook. I saw the ad for it last night and decided to try it out and off and on today I've played. It's a time waster but it is interesting and fun. 

I did manage to get out of the house today and aggravate my back while doing it. I placed a hold on a few jewelry making books and went to go pick them up. After we had dinner, I took Skoora's mom, and Skoora's visiting cousin Amber to Hasting's. I was going to pay for the coffee and Amber's coco but Skoora's mom decided that she would. Then we parted ways in the store, they went to look at some things and I went to look for other things. Skoora's mom kind of rushed me when we met back up again despite me telling her that I was still looking. She wanted to get a book and then I guess decided that she didn't want to wait in line and put it back. In finagling my wallet and my purse, I managed to turn wrong and that's how I managed to make my back hurt worse this time. 

Back at home, Skoora's mom and dad watched Monster's University with Amber and I went out to watch for awhile. I stayed until the end of the movie but couldn't sit through another one. Since then I have been holed up in my room editing some photos, looking at what I have on my deviant art page, and yeah, that's about it. I should have logged on to play Guild Wars but I just didn't feel like it. I wanted to read but I didn't feel like doing that either. Writing was on my mind but again, I didn't feel like much of that. 

So here I am again, it's the middle of the night. I'm by myself, the cats want to go in and out, and I can't sleep but this time, I really wish I could! I don't think I will sleep very well until Skoora comes home.

Oh and my friend Christine B is coming to visit on Sunday. I'm not sure how long she's going to stay, but I don't care. I don't know if she will buy any fabric or not but she's asked me to make some pillow cases for her.   

Camp NaNoWriMo!

Today is the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo! It is the same as National Novel Writer's month in that people who sign up write 50,000 words by the end of the month. It's essentially word vomit but at least you've gotten your ideas out on paper and can work from there.

Usually the Girlfriend and I would only do NaNoWriMo in November but this year I really wanted to try doing two. I have a novel that I have been trying to get out of me for awhile now (I have a few like that). You're supposed to start from scratch but I don't always. I will take a project that needs rewriting and start from the beginning and see where the rewrite takes me and then after NaNoWriMo is over I will take the best stuff from the first and 2nd or 3rd drafts and stitch them together to make a stronger piece of work. Last November I wrote a collection of short stories that still need to be edited and fine tuned and tweaked. Some further research needs to be done for one of them.

Anyway, we are geared up and ready to begin. We have coffee, snacks of pizza rolls, bagels, and chips (all the naughty stuff, we're going to get some fruit and veggies later). We have even set the girlfriend's mother up so she can particiapte too! I'm excited because I know what story she's going to be working on and I think it's freaking awesome! Meanwhile mine will have the usual death, sadness, and of course romance! I just need to finish cooking the pizzas and I am good to go on my end.

If I am still up, I will be going to the Kroc to swim at 5am. There are so few people there I can really move around, plus, no children. God love them but they are damn annoying when they decide you are their new best friend and have to tell you their life story. Cute, but I can't get my exorcise done with a kid yakking at me, mainly because I feel the need to pay attention instead of blowing them off. :)