Measi's Musings

Archive for the ‘Celebrations & Holidays’ Category

I’ve generally watched the ball drop with friends, followed by kisses and the hugs and all that. I don’t know the words to Auld Lang Syne, like everyone else. I call my family shortly afterward to share the cheer (normally around 11 p.m. for my dad, since he’s two hours behind).

This year, I don’t know if I’ll watch the ball drop – unless I can find it on a station that’s not showing Dick Clark. The after effects of his stroke are so incredibly uncomfortable to watch – it’s like intentionally putting an invalid on TV to make people feel ashamed, IMHO.

No other traditions for NYE, but pork chops and sauerkraut are a good luck requirement for supper on New Year’s Day.

Wishing my fellow Pagans a blessed Yule. May the candles you light tonight keep you warm the whole year through.

I have a lot to get done this weekend. Some of it’s holiday related (getting a tree, putting lights up outside, cards), some of it’s belated autumn stuff (cleaning up the yard before they stop picking up yard waste for the year), and some of it’s stuff I’d planned to do over Thanksgiving weekend but just didn’t get done for one reason or the other (laundry). I’d also like to find some time to relax – play some WoW, maybe do some stitching.

Stitching is going great since I started. I have two slots left on my rotation once I finish my hours on Floral Bellpull tonight. I may actually finish my rotation before the end of 2009!

Here’s where Floral Bellpull started on November 18th:

I started my rotation during our Cape Cod weekend – but also wound up doing a whole lot of frogging (UGH). I’m not sure whether the problems were all present when I took this photo, but I know for certain that small batch of green stitches close to the middle were misplaced (they were a row too high), and caused a whole mess of alignment problems.

I didn’t feel like I was making a lot of progress on this piece, but looking at this photo versus what I have done now, I realize I really have done a nice amount… and all I’ve been doing are leaves. Lots and lots of green!

So tomorrow morning I’ll post the end-of-rotation photo for this piece before moving onto Apache Wedding Blessing, which was meant for Ivanna’s 1st anniversary. At this point, I’m figuring maybe I should plan for an early 10th anniversary present with the rate it’s stitching! I expect to make some good progress on it, though. I seem to be in a good stitching zone lately, so hopefully I can make a push on it.

South Station in Boston is prepping for the holidays this week. The Nutcracker banners are up in full force, as they are every year. This week the annual electric train display has been going up. In years past, it was done on a weekend so I never got to see the building of it. But this year I’ve been able to get the progress pics.

Here’s Tuesday’s shot as they set the supports up:

The black poles are supports for the plastic clear boards (think hockey rink glass) that will surround the display so people can get right up close to look at things.

Here’s yesterday’s shot, with the ground and the train tracks laid:

They were beginning to put the actual trains and the buildings on the display last night, so I imagine by tonight it will be completed. I’ll take another photo on my way out of town tonight.

Off to work – lots of typing to get done today.

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

‘m one of the people who purposely doesn’t go out for Black Friday. I may have to just because my nails are getting to that too long to do anything length, but otherwise… no. I will stay home and stay far away from the insanity.

Thanksgiving cooking went very well yesterday – I have conquered the 27 pound turkey. The leftover pile is terrifying, but oh… it was so good. I’m looking forward to the traditional leftover plate in a little while for lunch. Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of the turkey, cream cheese mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes & apples, sausage stuffing, rolls, and cranberry/apple/orange slaw. We bought pumpkin and apple pies for dessert. I didn’t make the mustard carrots that were also planned – if we need sides later this weekend, I’ll throw them together.

OM NOM NOM.

So yeah – nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with just the three of us. We have enough food to last us through the weekend, I think.

Hoodsie has become the wild turkey-hunting beast once again this year. He only purrs for turkey. Seriously. So he gets a lot of turkey. We want to hear the cat purr!

The plans to get yardwork done have fallen through for a couple days – we’re up against the lawn pickup deadline now. Providence stops picking up leaf bags in two weeks. So hopefully we’ll be able to get them done before the end of the season. If we’re late, the bags will go into the garage for the winter. *sigh*

The rest of the weekend is in flux. I’m going to get some cards written. I have a couple of stitching things to wrap up. I want to get laundry caught up (including that novel thing that is sock matching). I’m going to get caught up on Masterpiece Theater, some audio/visual stuff, some fanfic reading.

And I do really want to write, but my brain is still foggy.

So yeah – that’s what’s up here. How about you guys?

I’m one of the people who purposely doesn’t go out for Black Friday. I may have to just because my nails are getting to that too long to do anything length, but otherwise… no. I will stay home and stay far away from the insanity.

Thanksgiving cooking went very well yesterday – I have conquered the 27 pound turkey. The leftover pile is terrifying, but oh… it was so good. I’m looking forward to the traditional leftover plate in a little while for lunch. Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of the turkey, cream cheese mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes & apples, sausage stuffing, rolls, and cranberry/apple/orange slaw. We bought pumpkin and apple pies for dessert. I didn’t make the mustard carrots that were also planned – if we need sides later this weekend, I’ll throw them together.

OM NOM NOM.

So yeah – nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with just the three of us. We have enough food to last us through the weekend, I think.

Hoodsie has become the wild turkey-hunting beast once again this year. He only purrs for turkey. Seriously. So he gets a lot of turkey. We want to hear the cat purr!

The plans to get yardwork done have fallen through for a couple days – we’re up against the lawn pickup deadline now. Providence stops picking up leaf bags in two weeks. So hopefully we’ll be able to get them done before the end of the season. If we’re late, the bags will go into the garage for the winter. *sigh*

The rest of the weekend is in flux. I’m going to get some cards written. I have a couple of stitching things to wrap up. I want to get laundry caught up (including that novel thing that is sock matching). I’m going to get caught up on Masterpiece Theater, some audio/visual stuff, some fanfic reading.

And I do really want to write, but my brain is still foggy.

So yeah – that’s what’s up here. How about you guys?

CARDS!

I’m going to start writing them today, so if you want one – drop me your address. I have a signup here, but I know people are starting to get insane.

I’ll screen comments to this entry, and unlock ones that aren’t address-related.

Along with the clicking clock theme of my last entry, I came across a great way to do my holiday cards this year, thanks to Weetabix.

So… if you’d like a card from me, please head over here and enter your info:   I’m planning on sending cards out at the end of November, but I’ll take requests until Christmas if people want them. 

I’ve been on vacation all week – a much needed one to get my head in order, relax, and just catch up on things that I’ve been wanting to do.

On Monday night, Erich and I went to Gillette Stadium to see U2 in concert with a couple of our friends. It was absolutely fantastic! I’d seen them before back in 1997 (also in Foxboro… at the old stadium) during their Popmart tour. The current 360 tour, with its monsterous claw spaceship stage, is completely different. Only a few songs overlap… although granted, there have been a few albums since then!

Wednesday was our wedding anniversary – 2 years already (eep!). We went down to Mystic, CT for the afternoon to just get out of the house for a while. Mystic’s only about an hour way, so a nice and easy day trip. We went to Mystic Pizza (and like in the movie, it quite possibly is a little slice of heaven), then out to the point to relax for a few minutes, followed by shopping. Later in the evening, we tried a new Hibachi/sushi restaurant in Warwick (excellent). Overall, just a fun day.

I spent most of today getting things done and getting organized – laundry, getting a new calendar, catching up on email. Tomorrow will be much of the same. I’m getting the stitching bug again, so I’m planning to pull all of the projects out and set up a rotation. I’d love to get a few of them out of the trunk and onto the wall one of these days!

All for me… probably more chattering tomorrow as I get this stuff organized.

Anyone still reading out there? I’m guessing no, but meh, worth asking.

Admin. Day flowers
Originally uploaded by measi.

I’m normally not a pink person… but these are quite lovely.

Sometimes, there are small perks for being a secretary, regardless of the PC title we’re given these days.

I’ll admit that I’ve been in a meh mood about blogging lately so I haven’t been around LJ often. Part of it has just been a pullback after all of the fandom b.s. over the last several months (and taking a breather). Part has just been that frankly, I don’t have a lot I’ve felt like writing about. And really – in a lot of ways I just don’t feel like I have anything interesting to say. *shrug*

That being said, I hate that with the exception of a few very filtered entries, my journal has really only been filled with dragon eggs for the last several weeks. And that needs to change. I’m also debating whether to start posting most stuff in unlocked entries again, and just say “eff it” to all of the crap that’s gone on. Filtering myself into a lockdown, and then forcing myself to further filter due to the people who were on my friends list has honestly hurt my writing style. A lot.

Thankfully, I’ve done a lot of sweeping. And I’m thinking I’m okay.

So for giggles, here’s just a “what’s Mel been up to lately?” life recap post…

Writing Stuff
I’ve been doing a lot of writing, both fanfic and casual fiction, but not getting anywhere near where I want to be. That’s frustrating. I’m now two months late on my Support Stacie fic – mostly stuck because NC17 was requested, but I just can’t get my brain to go that route right now. *sigh* (and of course, forcing makes it even worse). I’m now also late on an OT3 fic, although the deadline was a bit looser on that one. I do think that my OT3 writing is being affected by the Stacie fic situation. I’ll just try to keep plugging… somehow.

Once these two fics are done, though, I need to take a break from fanfic for a while. Just to focus on other projects, I think.

Travels
This past weekend Erich and I headed to Chicago to celebrate the wedding of our friends myownwench and jgulner. We had a great time, despite some extremely crappy weather on Saturday and Sunday. Neither of us had been to Chicago before. To be able to fly from snowy teen-degree Rhode Island to a sixty-five degree Chicago and sprawl out on the Navy Pier on Friday, complete with mini-icebergs in Lake Michigan, was a blast.

The wedding itself was very nice – a pretty and heartfelt ceremony for two fantastic people, followed by a good party that went past midnight with lots of dancing and goofing off. Really can’t beat it.

Oh – and if you ever go to Chicago, you must eat at Glenn’s Diner. We saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network just a week before heading out west… and it was fantastic. It’s a bit pricey ($17-22), but very, very good and worth it in my opinion. Some very different fish selections than you’ll normally see.

Work
Work’s been stressful, and I admit that I’m very frustrated with the situation. I love the company I work for, but I’ve got a growing resentment regarding the people I work with… and having gone to my manager about it, now know that I have absolutely no solutions beyond the traditional “put up and shut up” about it.

I know I’m good at what I do, and I take pride in my work. I’m not just there to get a paycheck – if that were the case, I definitely wouldn’t be traveling 90 minutes each way. The downside of being good at what I do and taking pride in my work is that because I’m willing to take the responsibility, I see the two people I work with taking advantage of that. It’s expected that if a project’s going to go later than our scheduled hours, I’m the one staying. We’ve been on an adjusted work schedule since October when our receptionist went out for double hip surgery. One of the women I work with volunteered to work every morning starting at 8:30, and then the other two of us work the afternoon shifts. When early morning admin is off or having to cover the mailroom because THAT clerk is out, then the two of us who cover in the afternoon have go come in early. Well… I’ve wound up having to cover six of those so far this year, and nine since October, including working THROUGH the office Christmas party. The other girl has worked that extra phone shift… once.

And when I pointed this out to my manager, I got absolutely no help on it. In fact, she claimed that both of them are getting glowing reviews – completely OPPOSITE of what I’m hearing from people, who come storming to me to complain about the stupid mistakes and attitude they get from the others. I suggest they take it to my manager, but they tell me that they get blown off about complaints.

So yeah… despite carrying a heavier workload because extra afternoon person sucks, both personality and work-output wise… I’m just expected to put up and shut up. More and more people are either waiting until I’m by myself in the administrative assistant cube to give work, or just not bringing it to our department at all because they don’t want the other two working on their projects.

And of course, I’m happy to do the work. BUT… I’m also getting major attitudes from the other two, who of course, I’m making look bad by actually DOING MY JOB.

The whole situation is souring me. I’m tired, I’m frustrated, and just need a venting session. I keep reminding myself that I need to be thankful I have a job. That because I live in one of the states with an over 10% unemployment rate, I can’t do anything to risk it.

But it’s getting harder to get up in the morning, knowing that I’m going to have to put up with the crap again.

*sigh*

Health
On the downside – I really need to get in soon to get my blood pressure under monitoring. Three separate times over six months, my reading was at roughly 140/90. Considering I was at 115/75 consistently (even at my heaviest weight) until very recently, I’m wondering what’s up. I’ve been watching my sodium intake in the meantime, since it’s the easiest thing to keep an eye on.

On the upside – I’m somehow down two dress sizes. My clothes still fit me, but I’ve gone down a couple dress sizes… and a bra cup size. Not complaining about this. Not sure how it’s happening, either.

But I’ll take it.

And I’ll look forward to the weather getting better so I can take advantage of it and get some good walking in.

So yeah, that’s basically everything going on in my head these days.

New England sees a snowstorm and goes OMGWTFBBQ!!!!! and does nothing to plow the roads, salt the roads, or you know… anything sane in an area that does, in fact, get snow fairly steadily on a yearly basis.

*forehead smack*

Needless to say, travel plans to masquedbunny‘s home are scrapped. Way too slick out there, and with the temps dropping, it’s only going to get worse.

Add stupid New England drivers.

Add additional stupid drunk New England drivers.

yeah, no. Staying home.

*sigh*

I know the Aussies are already there, and others will soon follow -

Safe and happy celebrations for the New Year. See you guys on the other side!

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend, full of whatever you celebrate, or productive in resting, recouping, and re-energizing if you don’t.

Ours was very quiet and uneventful. We went to bed on Christmas Eve with about six inches of snow on the ground. Got up on Christmas morning, and the grass was bare. Completely melted off, with the exception of the plow piles on the curbs (and as of Sunday, those are gone, too). Amazing.

Since Mom cancelled out on her trip up from Pennsylvania with my brother in tow, we really didn’t have any plans. All three of us got up late, bummed around for a while, and then headed out around 1 or 2 to find Chinese food.

We drove for a little while, starting first on Wickenden Street, then making a circle literally around College Hill before finding ourselves in North Providence. Nothing had been open. It was a quiet, bright, warm day, and we enjoyed the exploration around the city. I’d checked for places open before we left (just in case), and saw that MuMu on Atwells Ave was open for Thanksgiving, so I presumed they’d be open for Christmas.

And yes, they were. The only thing open in Federal Hill. Seeing Atwells Ave dead silent was just creepy. For anyone who knows Providence (and particularly Federal Hill) – we had our pick of parking. No cars anywhere on the street. This is a Very Weird Thing.

The food at MuMu was fantastic – in fact, quite possibly the best I’ve had since moving to New England, outside of the very authentic “I don’t know what I’m eating and don’t want to know… because it tastes good” food you get in Boston’s Chinatown. Nothing was greasy, everything had lots of flavor and the presentation was great. We shared a scorpion bowl (in a beta fish bowl… hee!) between the three of us and stuffed ourselves on a variety of foods. We will definitely be going back there.

After dinner, we just came home and bummed around. Watched the new Who episode, which I thought was cute but definitely not my favorite of the pack (of the four Christmas specials, it’s sitting tied at the bottom with Voyage of the Damned). Lots of World of Warcraft. I finished the couple bubbles I had to level to 75 – and then by yesterday levelled to 76. Otherwise we’ve been doing a lot of the low level quests available to gain reputation with our faction’s cities. Both of us are gearing to get the Ambassador, Exploration and the Loremaster achievements. Erich has already gained Loremaster of Outland and Eastern Kingdoms. I have only Northrend to finish exploring. Geekdom geekdom, yadda yadda yadda.

On Friday, Erich had to work. I did a bit of project work but not as much as I’d hoped – some beta work, some fic drafting, but mostly just recouping because I’ve been exhausted at work. I made a delayed Christmas dinner – a new roast recipe I found on Recipezaar that had a lot of very positive rankings (4.5 out of 5). I followed the recipe exactly, but sadly it’s probably the blandest pot roast I can recall. Not sure how that happened, considering the recipe had quite a bit of grated horseradish and dijon mustard in the mix, but both tastes were virtually eliminated in cooking. It was wonderfully tender and the carrots and potatoes came out nice and tender – but the roast and broth gravy were a disappointment flavor-wise. Thankfully for the leftovers, I still have plenty of the grated horseradish to top the meat slices. And if need be, I’ll make the mustard sauce I normally use to make mustard carrots.

For Saturday, we spent most of the day up with friends, catching up with a couple of the guys who have moved out of New England but were home for the holidays. A massive Risk boardgame battle ensued, as well as some Rock Band goodness. Relaxing, nothing particularly special, but good to see them and spend some time. A couple of the guys are pressuring me to take part in Erich’s Star Wars d20 campaign, but I honestly am enjoying my time NOT gaming these days. I just can’t handle the 6-12 hours sitting in a chair like they can. My attention span to that just isn’t good anymore. And honestly, I have other things I want to do – writing, WoW, stitching (one of these days), and just getting a few little projects done.

Sunday was project day – going out to get me a new monitor since my desktop LCD has decided to start draining itself (and therefore turning black) – they were out of the type I wanted, so we’ll go back later. Went to Home Depot for a couple things, and the pet store for the standard supplies. We also took down our tree. I prefer to keep it up until the first week of January, but this year it just could not happen. The tree stopped taking on water a couple weeks ago and was tinder dry, so fire safety had to rule the day this year.

So now I’m back at work for another short week. I took Friday off to allow for another 4-day weekend, and I’m hoping to be a lot more productive. Erich’s gaming on Saturday, which should allow me plenty of time (and quiet) to finish my Support Stacie fic for wiggiemomsi. If work continues to be dead quiet this week, I’m planning on spending a lot of time going through beta work for others so it makes me look busy.

And then to figure out what I’m doing New Year’s Eve. Anyone up for anything?

Mom called me a bit ago, and said that she wasn’t coming up for Christmas. Which is both sad, because I do love seeing my mom – and this time my brother would be coming (who I haven’t seen since my wedding). But at the same time, it was only for an overnight visit, which I thought was a bit tight/made no sense since it’s a 5 hour drive in the best of weather.

The idea of her coming up was one of those impromptu things anyway – just happened like, last week or so. So it’s not really one of those big irritating things.

So Christmas will be quiet, with just Erich, Matt and myself. Which is good – the house is a wreck, and now I can do the original plans of writing, cleaning up my office and getting settled into it again, and catching up on some small projects that I just keep putting off. Erich has to work Friday, and I have no desire to endure Mall Hell, so I’ll just stay home and putter. It will be good.

And sadly, our tree will have to come down this weekend anyway – it stopped taking water about three weeks ago and is starting to get dangerously dry. I was hoping it would keep through Christmas, and it will – just barely. But the branches are starting to curl. I think the tree lot just didn’t make a deep enough initial cut on the trunk, honestly. It was a gorgeous tree this year, too. *sigh*

I’ll still make something yummy for Christmas dinner – I was thinking about some sort of a roast. I’ll figure that out tonight since I’ll need to do some shopping.

Hmm…

(and on a stupid little note… it’ll certainly make handling the Who episode stuff easier!)

(being snarky) Remember… Axial tilt is the reason for the season…. (/snark)

It’s a snowy one here – it’s been snowing almost consistently since Friday afternoon. We’re up to about a foot, give or take an inch, and it’s coming down pretty heavy now. Supposedly it’s going to change to rain later, although honestly I hope it doesn’t. Since it’s the first snow of the season here, there’s a pretty, peaceful feel about it. I’d love it to be a white Christmas this year.

After then, it can go away.

I’ve received quite a few cards this week – thank you all!