State of the Neko address: week 36, part 2

song+ Ghostbusters theme
book+ Dragon Quest 5 guide
scent+ cherry cheesecake
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am (temporarily?) unemployed
attire+ pajamas!
drink+ milk

Thursday i lost my job. it was a combination of little things adding up and me being accused of abusing my power and some other stupid excuses, and i was told i could quit or be fired, so i quit. Friday Wolfie drove me around to put in applications other places, and today i heard back from one of them. more on that later.

Saturday was a girly date with mom and a few of my dolls, and all of hers. xD we went to her house and talked and enjoyed some silence, and searched her studio for the missing presser foot and power cord for the serger. found it successfully, huzzah! then we went to an AWESOME bead shop, and stopped by to visit Dad (very) briefly on the way to Bonnie's for her surprise birthday/Halloween party- which was great (the party, visiting dad was kinda morose). after that we went back to mom's since i kinda forgot FaithAnn and Rosalie and left them chatting with Blessing, Celeste, Chutzpah, and Faith. they forgave me and managed to not short-sheet mom's bed or anything too mischievous. xD upon our return to Arlington Moose and i stopped at my apartment to grab both my costume options and head to her place to get ready to go dancing. it turns out the Wonder Woman costume runs large and does fit after all, except one of the gauntlets runs smaller than the other. xD so i wore it dancing with some tutus layered beneath for modesty. Moose did an Indigo Lantern tribes-woman that ended up looking far more 80s Madonna (circa Like A Virgin), but it was kinda cute so it worked out fine. we only stayed out for a few hours, i was home and in bed by 2am, which is pretty good for a dancing night.

today there's no real plan. James and Naku may come over at some point, or Kyu and i may head out to socialize at the comic shop. in spite of no longer working for them i still enjoy the products and the store employees. in the next few days i'll work on coercing my computer to reading the SD card from my camera so i can share the costumes i did for all my girls (except Eve) and some of me and Moose with our dolly doppelgangers. we had fun with it all. xD

tomorrow i have an interview regarding potential employment at one of the craft stores i applied at. xD i'm cautiously optimistic and i'll definitely let everyone know how i works out.

State of the Neko address: week 36

song+ Crutch- Matchbox Twenty- Mad Season
book+ the Lost Hero
scent+ cherry cheesecake
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

this weekend was awesome. Happy my Birthday (yesterday)! xD Friday night i finished my baking. brownies, lemon bars and cherry cheesecake (oh my!) all to be forced upon my friends in an effort to adhere to my not-calling-it-a-diet. Saturday Kyu and i spent the day at the Central store with the warhammer group and had fun not-playing. Sunday was the Japanese Garden Festival at the Botanical Garden with the Wifey, our dolls, and our boyfriends- followed by our traditional Cheesecake Factory appearance. xD i finally got to try the pumpkin cheesecake, it’s awesome.

my Wonder Woman costume arrived and i'm a bit disappointed that it was sized incorrectly on the website and looks like it won’t fit after all. :( i've only tried the wrist bracers and the boots so far but both are too small to be an adult Large. stupid incorrect sizing.. so it looks like it’ll be my Ravenclaw costume and only that one for any and all holiday festivities. though i guess if the dress part fits, i can mangle the wrist things and make them snap closed or something. the tiara part fits at least, it’s elastic and velcro so really it’d be appalling if it didn’t. i did get the two missing pieces of my Ravenclaw uniform purchased this weekend though, so it’s ready for sure! i only have to decide how to wear my hair now for it. xD

State of the Neko address: week 35, part 2

song+ Bach/Break- August Rush Soundtrack
book+ Nightwing and Flamebird
scent+ fruit snacks
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

more to talk about today for sure. as of yesterday around lunchtime, Moose no longer works with me and Kyu. after making the same mistake (a kinda big one too) for the third time it was her third strike and she was let go. that means as a result Kyu and i are walking to and from work again. it’s good though, we got kinda complacent and lazy getting rides every day. it’s not super far so walking it isn’t a big deal. in a few weeks we should be used to it again and back to making it in half an hour (or less) and not 45 minutes (or more). xD

this weekend is packed for me. i need to get to baking, and helping Moose get her costume together. it’s all cut out, so my remaining role is setting up and calibrating the serger, then instructing her in its use. aside from baking and sewing, Saturday is kinda early birthday time with the Warhammer group (hence the quantity of baked goods) and Sunday i have a date with my Wifey. we’re hitting the festival at the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens with our doll-babies and then having dinner at Cheesecake Factory according to tradition. xD there’s also a need to buy like two things for my Ravenclaw costume so i can wear it to work next Friday. all i need at this point is a (properly fitted) white dress shirt and black tights or knee socks. everything else is taken care of already- huzzah proper preparation (for once)! xD

the Wonder Woman costume i ordered (for non-work festivities) has shipped but is taking its sweet time getting here. kinda annoying but as long as i have it by the 30th (when i'll be wearing it) i suppose it’s all okay. the other stuff i ordered has no tracking information, so i can only hope it arrives soon as i'm kinda sick of wearing a poorly fitted emergency!bra. i had to order new ones after the under wire in my old favorite snapped on one side and tried to run away on the other. both malfunctions resulted in stabbing and scratching. X.x the downside to our prodigious genetic blessing is that online shopping is the only way i can get anything cute that’ll fit me, and then i have to wait through shipping mystery times, stupid huge boobs.

tonight my plan is to start as much of the baking as possible so i can devote tomorrow evening to helping Moose with her costume. while i think she’ll do fine with the serger, it just seems smarter to supervise its use. xD if the baking is mostly done i can focus on assisting with minimal distraction. i'll need to pick up disposable pie tins and something to keep the stuff in after it’s done tonight from the store first.. maybe i can get Wolfie to drive me after work.

in nerdy matters, my Wonder Woman tiara, lasso and gauntlet set has been pushed back again. it’s now due to ship in early December, around the same time as the Princess Bride replica of Inigo’s sword that i ordered this month. xD so sometime in December i'll be shelling out somewhere around $650 for both things after tax (only $598 if i use all store credit and avoid sales tax entirely). or i guess technically it’d be for all four parts? whatever. it’ll be awesome and they’ll both be useful for pulling together a warrior type costume for the Ren Faire. obsessively nerdy? now why would anyone call me that? i prefer to think of it as Single-minded to the Point of Success.. except when i get distracted.

today has been a long LONG day though. the gist of it is that our UPS server died and it took all day to fix it and consequentially nothing went out that should have. so tomorrow i get to take care of that in addition to the usual Friday tasks. the worst part of the thing not working is that it led to my boss swinging by every half hour to see what i was doing since she couldn’t do most of her Thursday tasks. i hate being monitored or babysat like i'm incapable of doing anything properly without perpetual reminders. it drives me crazy, seriously! oh well, the day is now over and i can head home to further craziness, but at least it’s craziness of my own design..

State of the Neko address: week 35

song+ All the Love inthe World- the Corrs- In Blue
book+ Fables: Peter and Max
scent+ fruit snacks
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

this weekend was a little bit more exciting. Friday i finished Charmed (finally) and was surprisingly satisfied with the ending. Saturday was for sleeping in, then errands with Moose and a movie (my second viewing of Easy A- still smart and funny) and complete failure to get any work done on her costume. so Sunday then became dying my hair dark again, and getting the fabric and lining for her top cut out, to make up for the time we lost by seeing the movie. tonight she should be coming over to work on it a bit more since i only said i'd get her to where we’d be if there hadn’t been a movie viewing. i also successfully bought my Halloween costume this weekend (online, it’s even already shipped!) and a few other things i've needed. so i'm close to broke, but have the things that matter for the next week or two already taken care of, so i can’t really mind the broke-ness. xD

this week i'm hoping to get some doll sewing done. no idea for whom just yet, but i'm in the mood for fiddly detailed stuff. maybe i'll see if i can work something out for little Chloe. maybe i can see if i can talk Kyu into finally doing her faceup.. xD getting her the right kind of wig would be nice too. the poor girl is STILL blank-faced and bald after all these months. X.x maybe i should just offer to do it for him after all. i did offer to make her a wig from my fur samples, but she can’t decide on a color at this point. she’s a very indecisive girl. maybe i can just mess with her default wig and get it to stay on her head. her curly red wig makes her look kinda like she could be Eve’s baby girl actually, it’s just too tight and won’t stay on her head without a serious fight. snipping the elastic in the back should loosen it just enough though, so i'll probably try that tonight.

State of the Neko address: week 34, part 2

song+ I Turn to You- Melanie C- Northern Star
book+ Wonder Woman- Contagion
scent+ fruit snacks
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

this week has been kinda boring. the most exciting thing so far has actually been my sick day yesterday, and all i did all day was sleep. today i'm back at work though, doing boring routine crap. yay i guess? xD

anyhow, this weekend my only goal is progressing my Halloween costume endeavors. buying what i need and making the rest. i'd like to not be scrambling at the last second for once. xD it’s kinda a pattern of mine. i should make a list though, so i get everything done this week that i need to.. hmm..

okay, the list is now in my ipod where i can’t lose it. xD that should help a good deal actually. i'm pretty good about actually making lists, i'm lousy at holding on to them. consistently i lose them and they turn up months after they no longer apply to anything. it’s kinda lame really.

i guess that’s all, it really has been an extraordinarily boring week. xD maybe next week will be better.

State of the Neko address: week 34

song+ Only One- Yellowcard- Ocean Avenue
book+ Dthe Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need (blame dad)
scent+ turkey sandwich
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

this past week’s craziness was so extreme that i didn’t really have any time to draft my customary second post of the week. xD to catch up on what would have been in it, Warhammer yay! i spent Saturday painting my repeater bolt throwers to look inadvertently steampunkish. also, i made the second payment on not-named-Carina. very exciting progress actually, the final payment should be made by the end of the month. the deadline is Nov 5, but it should be sent sooner than that.

this paycheck is likely to go to other things, Halloween costume bits and pieces, hair dye, whatever else i realize i'm in need of between now and then. xD good gloves for hair dying- Kyu got paint on the pair we had after he failed to think at all about whether they’d be needed to restore my head to relative normalcy.

in other whatever-ness, my boss is out today for schooling related obligations for her kids, so i get Tiff to assist me in getting everything done. xD it’s nice to know i won’t be mega-rushed and also that nobody will be standing behind me at any point watching me work and waiting for something to criticize. also Tiff and i get on pretty well, so splitting our not-insubstantial workload has gone pretty easily thus far. simple, easy work days are nice, but sadly kinda rare. it seems they only come around when my boss isn’t here..

it occurrs to me that my social calendar for October is oddly full, this weekend is a (tentative) trip to the local(ish) GW store with the warhammer group, buying Halloween costume components, and also de-greening my hair, next weekend is my birthday trip to Cheesecake Factory with the Wifey and our dolly kiddos, and the weekend after is a dolly date with mom, and Halloween itself.

it’s my favorite holiday so it’s worth noting. xD at this point what i've decided to do for work is a Ravenclaw Hogwarts uniform, for non-work i'm sorely tempted by a Golden Age Wonder Woman costume, that’s the version with the skirt. xD i can get it relatively inexpensively and some actually-accurate boots too, but neither is cheap, so i'm still deciding on that part. the Ravenclaw one is for sure though. at this point all i need is a white blouse and grey or black knee-high socks. i'll be making the uniform skirt myself (since i have a pattern and appropriate material) and already have proper shoes and the tie and scarf. i do adore Halloween though. xD

if i can get my serger set up and calibrated it’ll make finishing up costumes a breeze. if i can’t, there’s a good bit of hand-sewing ahead of me to get a skirt done. xD hopefully i'm up to the challenge. i suppose the first step is lugging the thing upstairs. digging out the needed pattern and fabric is probably a step in the right direction too. i know i could buy a skirt, but odds are good that it wouldn’t be quite what i'm wanting and looking for. i'm aiming for knee length and of a specific slightly dropped-waist style that’s more flattering to my hips than a traditional pleated skirt, especially when paired with a dress shirt.

i guess that’s it for today though, and hopefully there’ll be time later this week for another post. only doing one las week was kinda bizarre for me. xD

State of the Neko address: week 33

song+ I Am- Christina Aguilera- Bionic
book+ Dark Elf codex
scent+ gummy bears!
quest+ getting Carina
upper+ napping is awesome
downer+ i am pitifully poor
attire+ work clothes
drink+ milk

(this is totally a day late- my bad. pretend it's from Monday night?)

this weekend was surprisingly productive for me, in spite of a lot more sleeping than is likely normal. xD Saturday i played my first Warhammer game. i didn’t win, but i lost by less than i expected to. after it was done i realized that we forgot to do some things we should have done, but being my learning game, it’s not a big deal. Sunday we got the office cleaned out and vaccuumed and moved the three desks that belong up there from the living room.

my books are now re-organized on their shelf. the piles that had built up are worked in with their brethren, and the duplicates (an unfortunate side effect of not having everything together for reference) have been put aside to be sold back here for credit. it makes more sense than any other solution, really. other things have been removed from the bookcase entirely so i should have enough space for the foreseeable future. or at least for the nest few months.

the other thing i did this weekend was carefully dis-assemble my codex and put the pages in sleeves in a binder. after reading it once pages were loosened, after playing one game they were coming out. i figured that this would be easy to flip through, and also that it’ll keep them from getting dog-eared or grimy. the whole thing was done with judicious application of force from the dull end of an exacto knife and pressure on the spine to reveal the glue. it looks very nice now and i have title dividers separating the sections i’ll need most often for ease in finding things.

after getting all that done i fully intended to work on painting more of my pieces, but Kyu reminded me we agreed to assemble the Dark Elf stuff that another player bought. he’s blind so really, we can assemble it all much easier than he can, but unfortunately he clipped all the pieces from the frames that they come in to keep them organized, so i spent a few hours last night sorting heads from torsos and shields and arms and any number of other things. i told Kyu i'll do the metal things and leave the plastic to him since it’s already all sorted and he’s the one that agreed to do it all. X.x there’s still 15-20 metal figures to go, but i can probably finish them tonight and get back to doing my stuff. xD

now that i've played a game i think rereading my (newly preserved) codex will help me know what i need to do next time to play right. (for example- i never did any psych tests for Witch Elf frenzy, oops. i also forgot all Dark Elf mages can summon more power dice for free.) it also gave me a better sense of how i need to paint some duplicate figures to show where their abilities differ. i also know i want to touch up the units that are already painted and get them sealed in the glossy varnish that my big pieces are done with. having them shiny doesn’t look bad and it keeps the paint job from chipping. since i'm working so long on all the details of the paint jobs it only makes sense to preserve it.

i've spent a lot of today thinking about the best changes i could make to my list though, to make it run smoother. i built it like i did to try out most of what’s available to me, and as a result it doesn’t run cohesively. this week i'll be removing the dud units and adding more magic casters. then when i can afford to i'll overhaul the whole thing, doubling my hydra, cauldron of blood, and witch elf numbers to start and likely dropping the warriors and possibly corsairs. if i switch my general from Morathi to Hellebron i lose the ability to fly from danger, but keep strong magic and get a better fighter. the magic is better actually since (depending on the gifts i give her) she’s enough cheaper that i can take a Supreme Sorceress too.

i suppose there’s not any benefit to speculating before i reread and know what’ll actually benefit me best. xD this week’s goals are (in order) getting Justin’s stuff assembled, cleaning the living room where the tables used to be, reading my codex, and reading the smaller version of the rulebook. i don’t need the fluff and history of the world to know how to play. we’ll see how much of it gets done though. the living room could take longer than we’re expecting it to, and if it does the rest will have to wait. xD

that’s stuff to worry about later, tonight is assembly and then painting! fortunately i've done the assembly before so it should go quickly, giving me plenty of time to devote to my own army. xD selfish, yeah, but i'm at least doing the helping first. especially since i wasn’t the one that actually agreed to help, Kyu roped me in when he didn’t know what all the pieces were, so i sorted it all for him.