xmas 2k16

Merry Christmas! We've had a nice lowkey one this year, which I ain't complaining about! No rushing about, hauling gifts, buying a bajillion things, or real struggles to do a lot of stuff. Just presents between three people, food, fun, and episode of Chopped, and merriment.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I got up earlier than usual and tidied house and packed up and wrapped Nathan & Helen's present and got the rest of my letters addressed and ready to go. I got out of the house at around 3:50 to get to the Post Office in time. I got there at 4:20 and it closes at 4:30. Got N&H's prezzie in the mail with a tracking number and off it went!

And so I left for Seabeck.

At one point in the drive, a mouse crawled out of my car hood and onto my window, but as I was driving sorta fast, it was unable to hold on and it slid off into the night. Hopefully there are not more mice. Guess I'll set a trap overnight in my car?

I arrived in Seabeck at not a bad hour. Paid rent by flinging twenties in the air. Dad made me a hot buttered rum and we played Tetris Block, this letter game, and this other game. I didn't win anything.

I wrapped presents hastily and went to bed at a good hour.

Come morning I blasted the John Finnemore Christmas classic "Get Dressed You Merry Gentleman" as I descended the stairs.

I dumped out my stocking and assembled my Everglades Park Ranger & Swamp Ruffian Lego set.

Dad made coffee and waffles. Tasty tasty. Presents were opened. I got Sugar Skull and The Girl on the Train and a water rescue Playmobil and a fancy popcorn set and some new slippers and pajamas and something I won't spoil for Nathan that is REALLY COOL!

Nice little haul indeed. I got Dad two cozy knit hats (both had good reviews and I didn't know which to get so I got both) and a book about a North Pole explorer and a South Pole explorer. Mom got a nice apron and two bags with birds on them, and she has a fourth present still in the mail.

We took a little hike to the creek and ate a Christmas dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, broccoli and OHMYGOD I just remembered I'll be getting PEOTWHS in the morning. Yuusss.

After dinner we played Beyond Balderdash and I lost by a considerable amount. Then we watched Shaolin Soccer (which was weirder than I remember it being) and an episode of Chopped.

Now it's night time. Goodnight!

hi I'm tired (hello tired, I'm a dad joke!)

AUUHHGGG I'm tired! I just finished Nathan & Helen's present. I wanted to get it in the mail tomorrow. So now it's done. WHOO!! And that is what I've been doing today. Talked to Celia a bit. Didn't clean or tidy. Just finished that up. Won't talk about what it is, and if you want to see it: check out my Instagram. If you DON'T WANT TO SEE IT, AVOID MY INSTAGRAM!!!

Yesterday I met Ma and Pa for the 3:20 showing of Star Wars in Poulsbo. On my way there I dropped off a few more cards, so now there are 93 cards in circulation. Star Wars was hella fun the second time around. Yay the Force!

Afterwards we went to dinner at that thai place on the corner in Poulsbo. I went for the wide flat noodles, as something new. They were really damn tasty!

After a nice dinner with nice family and discussions of beekeeping classes, I made a vitamins run and envelopes run up on the stores on the hill. So I got that done and headed back home.

At least I slept in this morning, but I shouldn't do that tomorrow. Got stuff to do tomorrow, but at least with a Post Office deadline, I can get my boot scootin'.

GOOD NIGHT!

85/100

Sunday! Sunday I just worked on writing cards all day, pretty much. I did a bit of cleaning, but yeah...mostly cards. I have 85 in the mail right now! I dropped off what I had in the evening, so they'll go out in the Monday morning post from Brinnon.

My legs hurt. I spend too much time sitting.

Monday I did clean house a bit. I tidied the dresser drawer top and put things away. Did some laundry. Put other things away. There's still more to be put away, but I made a dent.

I started work on Nathan and Helen's present. It's looking pretty good thus far. Just need to actually figure out how to do an element of it.

Might see Star Wars again tomorrow. Got stuff to work on! And a few more cards to drop off. I'm almost out of them.

family times

Auhhg sleepy. I got up early today to haul butt to the Post Office in the early morning window to make sure the first wave of holiday cards, 33 in total, got into circulation. I've dropped off another 13 tonight in Port Townsend. I want to get a whole 'nother chunk off by Monday. Ideally most of the ones I really want to get circulating. I don't want people getting theirs super late and feeling bad.

Thursday! I worked on site, but not too much. I mean, there was a break in the middle of the day where Boss made us a little Christmas lunch of veggie stuffed noodles and chocolate cake. Yum! Such good eating. I mainly worked the spreadsheet while she pulled items for consignment. Then I left to go see STAR WARS!!! Well first I filled up my tank and put in fuel injector cleaner and a quart of oil. Due for another oil change, I'm at 261k. THEN I went to Poulsbo to see Star Wars! I had snacks and a seat that was closer than I like but still not bad. The mixed nerd audience was so great. Everyone reacted the same and was super into it, and applauded! Multiple times! So great.

It was amazing and I can't wait to see it again. No spoilers!

Friday I worked on cards. I got a heap of stamps and worked on cards. Got them editioned and stamped and got 33 written up by the end of the day. I'd write more tonight but my hand is sore.

Today, Saturday, after dropping off the letters I worked on more letters. At 6:30, Celia and I went up to Port Townsend to meet assorted family members for food at Sweet Lorraine's. It was Brynne and Dan and Muchim and Averie specifically, and Jeanette and Clay arrived for dessert. Presents were exchanged our way, wine was consumed, I had the gnocchi (with mussles and fries starters which were shared). It was a great little round table of people. Lots of conversation and catching up and laughter and development in life. I should hang with Jeanette more often, because she's over in Port Townsend frequently. She's good people.

Celia drove home (see: me having had a couple glasses of wine) and now it's all rainy and I'm going to sleep in tomorrow!

I really need to clean house. It's gotten pretty ... piles of sweaters and stuff. Just a bit of tidying, probably won't take more than an hour to do it. I just need to do it. And I'll write up more cards.

swinging for the fences with these cards and it feels great

Mein gott, I see Star Wars tomorrow!! Ahhhh!!

And I'm working on site, so I won't be at the internet to see spoilers. That's a good thing.

Sooo Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday I worked from home on eBay stuff. Relisted a bunch of stuff just to refresh it in the eBay searches, as well as bring down the prices on a lot of things that hadn't sold.

And I cut more paper for my cards. The edition is sitting nicely at 110. Technically there are 113 made, but those three cards will be special ones given to people before the edition is really ready to go. Right now, the 110 cards have two of their three spot colors painted in. I hope to drop the first batch in the mail on Friday. I'm so happy with how they look, and I can't wait for people to get them.

So worked on the cards yesterday and worked on the cards today. I also ran a Silverdale errand and picked up a make your own stamp kit, so that I don't have to write in my return address on every dang envelope. Also it'll be fun to stamp the "hand printed" blah de blah on the back. The stamp kit has two size letters and stamp bases to put the letters into. Pretty neat. I went to Seabeck and got food and picked up my mail. Said hi to Ma and Pa. Returned home.

Celia got her birthday presents early: two cute catnip toys made by my dear friend Petra! One was shaped like a pizza and the other like a poptart. Teddy loved them, Panda seemed confused, and Sam was Sam. Celia got the first card and she really liked it. Hurray!

Returned home. Worked on cards and other art. Want to finish something before tomorrow.

See ya on the flip side!

it feels good to be making art

Saturday & Sunday & Monday

So in the past few days I have:

• Slept in, of course. That's what I do.
• I saw Krampus with Karen on Sunday. It was fun and well balanced. Had a lot of different things going but it managed too juggle them very well.
• Finished all my Yakult. 
• Shopped at Trader Joe's, where the cashier recognized me because my cool totes had come through her line before. She admired them again.
• Started carving a linoleum block to turn into a print for holiday cards.
• Cut up paper to print on for the block.
• Went to Sequim to shop for card supplies. Did NOT want to drive to Poulsbo, so I drove an extra five minutes. Sequim ain't too shabby a place. Got envelopes and washi tape at Office Max and a good stamp pad at Hopalongs? Doodlebugs! That's it. The lady didn't seem to quite get what I was talking about when I said I was printing a linoleum block and was a bit condescending in explaining how they stamp with ink pads, when all I wanted to make sure was that the pad was raised and not inset (a gel pad wouldn't work, my block is too bid).
• Still, nice to explore north a bit.
• Listened to podcasts.
• Ate irregularly.
• Ordered Christmas presents. Hopefully they'll all arrive before Christmas. Mom & Dad, don't open anything that arrives in my name!!
• Asked for Monday to be a chill day for me. Got the chill day.
• Watched TV.
• Went to bed earlier than usual.
• Finished the block and started printing.
• I'm printing 75 to start with, and there is currently 68 names in the address list, though I may not send cards to all the people. There's a few that are priority though.
• Pre-ordered my Star Wars ticket! Just have to make it to Thursday spoiler free. One day down, two to go.

In the next few days I need to:

• Work. Working on site on Thursday then going to see Star Wars.
• Work from home probably.
• Finish the cards and start getting them mailed out.
• Buy stamps.
• Doctor's appointment on Wednesday.

Ma and Pa: if a package arrives for me, give it to Celia to give to me when you see her on Thursday.

eBay listing marathon

Spent the last two days working from home in a cocoon of blankets working on listing items on eBay for work. Just did that for two full days of work. Did lots of sleep too.

But dang so much listing. Almost too much to do in a reasonable period of time. But it was the big pre-holiday push! So hopefully we pick up some juicy sales.

Weather has been okay. I ate noodles and apples and other things. Did laundry. Now I'm wiped from looking at the computer. Tomorrow I'm going to make some art! Stoked to make art!

Stoked to take a break too. And do some online chrissy massy shopping.

Arghhh. Burnt out.

I'm becoming utterly desensitized to fine quality jewlery

All righty, time to get caught up!

Well Monday and Tuesday I stayed home and worked from home. Mostly doing spreadsheet work. Researching, editing, writing up descriptions, that kind of thing. Slept in a mild amount. Stayed up maybe a bit too late. Ate noodles and bacon and eggs, but not all at once. Drank coffee and drank tea. Haven't lit a fire yet. Fires take so much effort and my wood is so wet. But maybe it's less damp now that the rain has paused for a moment.

It's been so rainy! Just pouring and tons of run off and I know it's Washington, but it seems a bit much even for the Evergreen state!

I worked onsite today (Wednesday) though I was by myself. With Bodi. Boss would be gone all day so it was partially a look after Bodi day. Let him out. Fed him. Gave him lots of pets. For work I finished measurements and testing the metal purities. We got a fancy gold testing kit so now we can really know what the qualities are of the things we are selling. The stamps seem to match up. Basically you scratch a bit of the gold off, and dribble chemicals on the scratch (it's on a little tester stone thingy) and if it dissolves, it's less than the matching purity of the chemical. So there's one for 10k and one for 14k and one for 18k and one for 22k. Fun! But time consuming. I hope I did it right. Like I said, the stamps on the gold that said it was 10k or 14k or whatever, it matched up to what I tested. A good control. It took time, but now all I have to do for the next to days is bust out eBay listings. I average 20 per 3 hours, but if I really get into the zone I can go faster.

I worked noonish to eightish, so I got back later than usual BUT I didn't have to deal with the traffic. I swung by Central Market and bought a salmon musubi for the road, and yakult and udon and Tapatio and maltesers and lychee soda. Yum yum.

So yeah, work work work, earn that cash, then weekend! Maybe I'll go hang with Karen.

OH and I also bought supplies for making prezzies, and the clerk knew where my name was from so that was fun to gab about Hitchhiker's Guide for a little bit.

And I really wish Healthcare.gov would stop emailing me because I'm covered till 2017!! The deadline doesn't apply to me!

hat hair and fighting the elements

If you are Ma or Pa or someone else looking to get me gifts for Christmas or my birthday, I put up a list right over yonder to the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

*****

Got three days to sum up again! Hope y'all aren't minding too much that the posts have slowed consistently, but hey I'm still writing to check in multiple times a week.

Friday I worked on site. Hauled over the jewelry and lighting equipment. Set it up again so we have the studio to show off when visitors come by. I helped inventory items and add in descriptions and I moved about boxes. Got a lot of stuff to list next week. A loooot of stuff. But we'll make money, so that's good! I gave Bodi some pets and headed out.

Deposited checks, ran a Target errand, and got home where Ma and Pa were! They came over during the day when I was at work. They saved me a plate of food, and they fed Celia too. It was rainy but Dad started a fire so it was cozy.

Come morning, they did yard work and hauled up the kayaks. Dad made me a new mallet for the kindling chopper, because I broke the other one. A rain barrel was installed as well! It's going to divert the run off from the gutters that's been eroding the side of the bank. Can't have the house fall into the bay. Dad cooked up some steaks for lunch and I made garlic jasmine rice. They headed out while it was still daylight and I chilled at home and went to bed early.

I've been really tired this weekend. I slept in, and have been going about in just a tired fog. Wonder what's up with that.

I drove up to Port Townsend to get some art supplies and the STORE WAS CLOSED! Closed on a Sunday! Boooo! But I had other plans for PT. I saw Room, which stars Brie Larson. Very heavy drama with excellent performances. So good. I'm amazed I didn't cry, but I wanted to. Her performance just trumps anything else done this year. I got dinner and a Victorian coffee at the theater (the Starlight Room). I got a house salad! Healthy choice!

I did some food shopping at the QFC after, and headed home. Damn it was a horrible drive both up and down. Rain pouring, wind pushing. I kept it slow and tried to keep the car out of the rain filled grooves in the pavement. Just really nasty stuff. Thankfully other drivers were acting sensibly as well. No speeders or tailgaters.

So I'm back at home, feeling tired even though I got plenty of sleep at it is 9 pm.

Felt like writing now, instead of much much later.

I'm wearing that hat I found in the hotel. Dad doesn't seem to want it, so it's mine!

working for that dolla dolla bill

Oy my hand is hurting. I've worked three full days in a row and I got another one tomorrow. We are hustling to get jewelry ready for sale on our eBay.

Tuesday I set up our brand spanking new lighting tent. It's so beautiful! Our photos look so great. Well my photos look so great. But yeah, lighting and a bit of knowledge of camera settings and you can get some really dynamic pictures. So stoked on how they are looking. I'm stoked on many things.

Uhm yeah, so Tuesday I photographed and then it was decided I'd bring the photo tent and work from home. Two days of working from home to get as much of it done as possible.

It's been rainy, but not as freezing. I haven't lit a fire since Monday.

Wednesday I set up the tent in the second story garage room. Perfect space. Long table, secondary table, power outlets, and the WiFi doesn't reach out there. Well it gets like, a bar, which is enough to do a few things but not major internet stuff. And today I shot photos too. And edited. I got them all edited, so that's good. I helped Celia break apart a tree that fell across the road.

I need to make a food run. I'm down to scraps.

Also the back freezer has stopped freezing, so all the crab bait is in the main freezer. Good thing it's just crab meat that got a bit soft, and I didn't lose any edible food.

Well I'm tired. Good night.

back to winter

Saturday

I packed my things into the van, and the five of us went in Nate's car to Palo Alto to get a pre-leaving brunch! Nice to stuff one self before a long drive. Parking was found in the exact same place we parked a few days ago when Nate was picking up his mail. The brunch place, Crepevia or something, had a line but it moved along pretty fast. You ordered once you got to the front of the line, paid up, and then were seated. Pretty efficient system. No waiting for the bill and all that. I had the black stone eggs benedict, Helen got pasta, Mom got a salad, Dad got a different eggs benedict, and Nathan...I forget what he got. I was the only one to get coffee. I tucked my napkin into my collar and devoured the eggs. It got over my fingers and face a bit, as it typically does when I consume eggs benedict, but I used my napkin and wasn't too much of an embarrassment. What can I say, I get into my food. After brunch, I got a bunch of pastries to eat on the road from Paris Baguette or something. Tasty looking ones, too. And I got two things of Blue Bottle New Orleans Iced Coffee. The stuff with chicory in it! I need to find out how to make it at home, because it's my second favorite coffee next to, of course, Courtney Coles' iced mocha.

Dad got a Stanford Dish light hoodie and then we returned to the car, returned to the house, said our goodbyes, and then North we went! Didn't have too hard of a time getting out of the city. Some traffic, sure, but it wasn't too gnarly. I put on Harry Potter, I snacked, I worked on my crossword puzzles. We got into Yreka once again and stayed at the Miners Inn once again. We watched tv, had some wine and food, and went to bed. It was very chilly with the heater off and I didn't think to grab my blanket from the car so I got a bit chilled.

Sunday

Long hauled it! Had our hot hotel breakfast and off we went. It was below freezing and the stuff in the car was cold. But eventually we warmed up. I had one of the BBNOIC. The pastries I got were a strawberry sponge cake, a creme cheese mini doughnut, a chocolate dipped chocolate filled pastry, and a strawberry turn over thing. I didn't eat them in that order, but I did eat them all. The turnover I think was the best.

We stopped at the Oregon Gardens near Silverton. We walked around the Gordon House that is designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (which was also at the gardens) and went into the gardens proper. We did a bit of a figure eight and checked out the different gardens. A lot of things were cut back and dormant, but there were still some nice trees and features and things. I took lotsa pictures and it was good for all of us to stretch our legs because we had 4+ hours of driving left.

Prisoner of Azkaban was finished, and we listened to two episodes of Mystery Show. The Kotter and Belt Buckle episodes, specifically.

We swung by a QFC and I got a couple things. Mom got some wine with birds on the label. We probably all looked a bit bedraggled.

Home was chilly. I got a thank you card from Mel in the mail. Mom heated up left overs. I stayed for a bit and ate some of the left overs and then returned to Pulali.

There were some major branches down, but nothing I couldn't easily move. The plastic chest on the porch had been blown about five feet over. The tarp from the grill was blown off, but I found it stuck but the wood pile and put it back on. I didn't do much clean up, just gave everything a looksie before going inside. The internet wasn't working. So I just went to bed and was very cold. I turned on the heater but didn't make a fire and in retrospect I should have put my blankets in the dryer for a few minutes right before bed, ya know...to warm them up.

Monday

But I did eventually warm up! Slept in a little bit. Got up. Started a fire first and foremost. Showered, fed, tidied up. The internet had been reset with a new password given to us by CenturyLink due to something about the rapid fire power outtages that I missed. I just had to reset the wifi booster over at Celia's, give the extension a new name, and I was good to go again.

Celia made a tasty turkey pot pie and I had some of that. Also got my new wreath! So pretty.

I sat in front of the fire, I thawed out the house, I got the branches out of the way, I moved my summer dresses into the garage closet and pulled out my winter coats, and generally was cozy.

I go back to work tomorrow and we are doing some super listing on eBay in this coming week! So tomorrow I'm busting out photographs. I'm excited! And I'll be happy to see precious Bodi.

Back into the fray.

First RC Thanksgiving

Arrived in Redwood City safe and sound, and I finally got a good night's sleep!

Oh and Thanksgiving went off without a hitch.

The Road Down

Yreka was snow covered in the morning. We had our hotel breakfast and headed down in a straight shot. Almost straight shot. The weather got warmer and the roads cleared and mom failed to buy me candy at a rest stop. We arrived in Redwood City an hour ahead of schedule, so we got sushi at Sakura 2.

The AirBNB

The AirBNB is a house boat...a very small, shabby, bare bones house boat. Not many amenities, or soaps, or space. I'm not sleeping there. Ma and Pa are sleeping there. It has it's charms...kinda.

Nate & Helen's House

After settling in to the AirBNB and taking a nap, we headed over to Redwood City proper to see Nathan and Helen's new house. It's cute. Two bedroom, two bathrooms. Back yard with a pool. Front yard with a yard. We five went out to Vesta for dinner. Fancy pizza place! We had this good pear and cream appetizer and brussel sprout thingy appetizer. The pizzas were sausage and honey, and marghereta, Very delicious! We ate them all with vigor and cleaned our plates.

Back at home, Ma and Pa returned to the houseboat and Garth (who lives with N&H) and I walked downtown to have a few brewksis.

Thanksgiving Day

I was first up at the house and I got my potatoes peeled ahead of schedule. They made it into the crockpot with garlic and milk and butter to turn into mashed potatoes early in the game. But they had a while to go. The turkey was prepped. Helen made two kinds of stuffing and a yam dish and a green bean dish. And bread was toasted. And our apple juice was decanted. And Helen's Dad came over, and Helen's sister and husband and kids stopped by for a little bit. 

The table was set and it looked lovely. My potatoes mashed up great by the way. And were quite the pile of taters. Oh and there was cranberry sauce and gravy too, but were premade by other people. Still very delicious! We sat down and ate heartily. We sat around for a bit, digested, talked, and then had Nathan's apple crisp and some pecan pie for dessert. Then we were totally stuffed. We watched some Netflix then we to sleep. Well, Nate and I stayed up and watched some One Punch Man.

Such a good pile of food.

The Day After (Today)

Ate left overs, then Ma, Pa, Nate, and myself went on the Stanford Dish Hike. A nice long one with hills and a paved walk way. Some nice vistas of the city and mom saw many birds. I was attacked by allergies the whole way through. Not fun. We made a coffee run and returned to N&H's house to chill. I talked about flags, people watched stuff on tv, we had leftovers for lunch. In the early evenings, Ma decided we'd all watch Frozen. So I took a walk by myself around the neighborhood. I'm not a fan of Frozen. Back at their house, we chilled and watched TV and now Nate and I are watching some more One Punch Man.

Tomorrow it's back north!

cold feet

I didn't get much sleep due to Dad's snoring. Tried to go to bed early but my body clock is so set to going to be late. Bad combo.

I had breakfast at the hotel breakfast place. Sausage, eggs, juice, biscuits and gravy. The coffee upset my tummy. I can't drink coffee with milk. Only two sugars for me.

From check out we went to this carousel museum in Albany, OR and it was so cool! They are building a new one from the ground up with basswood animals that are hand carved. Each one is commissioned by someone and they have a say in the design. There's foxes, elephants, unicorns. Some are done, some are still to be carved. It's a few years out from completion but damn that's a cool thing! We talked to this guy that commissioned one, and it turns out he is from Silverdale and the Mickelberry Road is named for his family! Wow!

We walked along the river and I showed Mom how to use her camera and we saw some ducks. From there we drove down to this historic mill and got a guided tour! Which ended up being almost TWO HOURS! And it was super cold. We were all bundled up but I was still super cold. Next time we need to ask how long a tour is to take, because that really ate into our day. We did get to see how the gears still were turned by the water, which was cool but not exactly worth being chilled for well over an hour. Argh.

At least I got to feed the chickens.

From there we just started driving south. It got dark. We listened to Harry Potter. It got cold. We got McDonald's. We decided on Yreka being our stop for the night. Just a bit over the border. Start early.

Now I shall shower so in the morning I can just get dressed and get going. Still have about 6 hours left in the car.

Not New York

I am in Albany! Oregon, not New York. No wrong turns here. Pretty light day of driving. I got up around 9:20, showered, had breakfast, packed up. There was a bit of a delay where we had to jump the battery because it had died. Hopefully it hasn't died in the morning. If it does, we'll jump it again.

We got through about four chapters of Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter are our go tos for road trip audiobooks. We listened to Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets on the last trip.

The nature reserve for today was the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge Area. It was pretty gray and misty but we saw some egrets and tundra swans and other birdies.

We landed in Albany and got a hotel room and got dinner at Elmer's. I got a monte cristo which was kinda squishy with no indistinguishable flavor, but Ma and Pa seemed to like their food.

Before food, we watched Chopped on TV. After food we caught the last hour of The Fifth Element. Now I guess I'll tuck into bed even though it's only 8:30pm.

Beck

I'm in Seabeck in my old new bed. This is such a squishy mattress. Kinda miss the squishyness because the main one is a bit stiff. Hmmm.

Anyway, pretty easy going day. Slept in. Talked on the phone with Ma. Tidied up the house. Then I got to packing up. Clothes, toiletries, makeup, entertainment, technology. One big bag, a backpack, and two totes with my purse. Not all that bad? Also my cooler, because it's a good medium sized one. That cooler is more well traveled than the majority of Americans.

Listened to Emily Heller's excellent album on the way over. So good. Had a nice easy drive. Took it slow, cuz it's cold. Around freezing. It's not supposed to get over 60 in Redwood City for the following week, which is a bummer. I'd like a hotter Thanksgiving.

I finished up my yakult. Damn I love that stuff. And while I bought Yan Yan, I haven't eaten it yet. I'll save that for the road.

So now we shall be off for two and a half days of driving. Hurray.

have a happy Sunday :)

Hey look! I updated yesterday AND I'm doing it today! How 'bout that. Going to try and be better about being regular, because if I do too much of nothing I forget what I've done.

I did my last chunk of work later tonight. A new batch for eBay.

I also vacuuming and did three loads of laundry. One big delicates load, and two smaller heavy loads (one light, one dark). I like to break up my laundry. Every now and again something wedges in the dryer and doesn't dry as it tumbles. Like it doesn't blog the tumble, it just gets stuck between the paddle and side.

Had noodles and yakult. Not together. Put cut avocado on creme cheese on toast for breakfast.

Watched Jessica Jones. Drank cocoa. Tidied up the house more. Tomorrow I pack up for the trip!

Note to self: pack board games, cooler, and clothes. Most importantly board games.

feeling good, how are you?

I had a really good day today, but that sum up will wait till I get done with Thursday!

Thursday:

Hmm. Kept it mellow! Had some poptarts and did some work from home and just kinda chilled. Didn't get up to much, just did my usual thing. Had some pasta for dinner.

Friday:

Big fun long day! First thing first, I updated my website. Loaded up new sketches, a few new illustrations, and generally made it not stuck in 2014. I really need to make new bigger work, because I haven't produced much to update it with. Still, it's good to update it.

I showered and headed out to Poulsbo for errands. Did one errand that is a bit private, but it was a good thing.

Made a hair dye and chocolate orange run. I'm glad chocolate oranges are only available during this season, because damn I love them.

Winter 2015 Chocolate Orange Count: 2

Then I went to downtown Poulsbo to go to this salon appointment that I made. Oh! I actually called a salon to make an appointment early in the day. I looked it up and they had discounts for the "trainee" stylists. I figured a trainee at a salon would be just fine. They told me it would be Bailey, and I'm just noting her name (might be spelled differently) so I can remember it the next time I need to get my hair cut. The gps took me to the wrong hair salon though, but I made it to the correct one on time.

Oh what an amazing time at the salon! Bailey was attentive and easy to talk to. Got the shampoo AND cut AND a bit of style for a very agreeable price. She took her time, which I loved. I was her last appointment of the day and I was in no rush. I assume last appointment because the shop closed at 5 and I was there are 4. I wanted my bangs back, but softer this time. Less blunt and full in volume. She did a great job at doing just what I asked for. Now I have a softer bang with long bits that curve around my face. And she showed me how to do a curl with a flat iron and right now my hair is all wavy and perfect looking. I love it. I may have overtipped but she did a really good job, and I get haircuts so infrequently, paying just a little bit more than I usually do (Super Cuts) ain't no thing. I really like the cut.

Afterwards, I went to Central Market and got udon and yakult and eggs and apples. Gotta spend the next two days eating all my perishables.

Unfortunately Averie and Muchim are not coming this weekend. But the weather is cold and it's not the best time to visit. Maybe in a few weeks.

And now I'm watching Jessica Jones and having a great ol' time.

storm season

Sorry for the late update, my internet was slogging.

Monday

Worked on site and it has since really messed up my mental schedule for the week. I keep thinking it is much later than it is. So on Monday I worked on site, but also was a bit of a personal assistant/chauffer. Boss let me put a chocolate orange on the company card. She’s the best. I itemized the snowflakes that didn’t sell, unloaded the van, moved boxes around, and in the middle of the day I took boss to an appointment, ran some errands for her, and then chilled at the library till boss was done with her appointment. Kinda fun to do that. I’m not due to be on site till after the holidays. So nice to have such a flexible job.

Got home later than I was supposed to because I forgot to deposit my check in Poulsbo, so I had to drive up into Part Hadlock to do that. Saved me doing an extra trip, so that’s good.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Worked from home doing listings. The storm knocked out the power for about an hour on Tuesday. I got a fire going and dug out the ditches a bit and hunkered down. Not the worst storm, but there’s now a large log stuck in the rocks on Celia’s end of the beach. It’s past the beach and seawall. It just needs a little nudge north on the next high tide. Well a storm nudge. I’m not going out there. It’s cold!

Around this time last year, I swam out to get that paddle boat. Can’t believe I did that!

Did a bunch of item listings, and a good chunk have already sold! Hurray!

helper

Two mornings in a row I got called into action by someone needing my help.

My boss can't catch a break. Saturday she called me in to take over the vintage fair because she was unable to. I got up, showered, and hauled butt over to Bainbridge Island. Thankfully parking was available on Saturdays on the side of the road. It was stormy and sopping wet but I looked cute in my raincoat. The vintage selling community is so nice! Debbie was watching our booth and Barb knew what was up and recognized me. I got Square loaded on my phone and set about making the pitch to the few buyers that trickled in. Barb made sandwiches for some of us, and Debbie made tasty cider. I had Kureg Kureig Kurieg whatever it's spelled coffee too. Pep in my step! We made some sales. Two fashionable gals and a fashionable lad admired our ornaments. One of them complimented my sweater and I was so stoked, because they were SERIOUSLY cool.

We had to take the stall down early (we being me, and bosses daughter and future step son) because of time constraints. It wasn't ideal, but it was how it had to go. About 15 minutes into us packing up...the power cut off in the hall. Emergency lights were found and hooked up to cars and light was had. Medium light. Not great light. And other people started packing up as well, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world for us to be gone early, and we had space to pack up because we weren't having to keep clear of the other stalls like we would have if the power had been on and people were coming through.

Some people still continued to shop! Once the van was loaded and I said toodles to the family, I bought some nice earrings made from vintage chandelier crystals. I headed home and got caught once again in that damn hour long Bainbridge escape.

I took a good long relax at home, and did a bit more work, and went to bed at a decent hour. Whew!!

Today Karen called me needing help with her flooded basement! Oh no! But that wouldn't be till 3 in the afternoon after she got back from dropping Rob off at the airport, so I had some time. Ate breakfast, chilled, and when I was at Big Beef Crossing headed to Seabeck to swing by Ma & Pa to get my mail, Karen called to tell me they had rearranged the flight and the basement was taken care of and while I could help for two hours, it wouldn't be totally necessary. She also apologized for not telling me earlier, but it's understandable because she was probably busy hauling her books out of four inches of water. Hopefully that basement stops being a bummer.

So I just hung out with Ma and Pa! I helped move the kayak about, ate dinner, helped with some gardening, and played an episode of 99% Invisible about maps and I worked on redesigning the Washington State flag because oy we've got a bad flag.

Did you know that Washington was named Washington instead of Columbia, in order to prevent confusion with the District of Columbia?

Went home, washed dishes, listened to podcasts. Now I must sleep because it's late and I got work on site tomorrow.

connecting a to b

Ah what a weird couple days. Thursday I felt like I took wrong turn after wrong turn. Or maybe just making dumb mistakes and not thinking. I picked up a Christmas Tree at the tree farm, but the gate was closed so I walked up to the barn to grab it (after saying hi to Sylvia)...but the gate wasn't locked. It LOOKED locked. But it wasn't. So I could have saved myself about ten minutes off that errands. Oops.

Then I picked up a check at Red Plantation and I called boss to confirm her seller number, which was the same it's always been and I knew what it was. Bloop.

Went to the Freemason's Lodge to help set up for this vintage fair. I made a coffee run too, and got a smaller tree stand for the tree. I got tea for me and was kinda miffed they put in TWO teabags for ONE 16oz cuppa. Like, one bag would be fine. Two is just a waste. Dang you Starbucks with your red anti-Christian cups!

I helped decorate the tree with ornaments for sale, and it was absolute overkill. But...that's the point! I grabbed some photos and then we got lunch in Lynwood and grabbed some client stuff and went back to the house to load up the photos to promote the sale. I helped cut coupons and did a chalk sign for the sale, and pet Bodi, and then headed home.

Traffic gave me an extra hour to my commute. Bleh. Got home, struggled to get a fire really happening. Talked to Ma and Pa. Went to bed early and tossed and turned.

In the morning (Friday) I rearranged the firewood pile, because the two stacks were getting wet and it wasn't really well covered. So I moved it into one stack and put the larger metal sheet over it, and the small sheet is against the stack to keep it from side wind rain. The wind blowing the rain at a diagonal has really drenched my poor wood piles. It's hard to find good dry pieces. Need some sort of shed.

I lit a fire, and it got going this time. I worked from home. Kept an eye on the eBay and client stuff for boss. I'll be doing more work from home tomorrow. It's supposed to rain for days and days. But it is Washington.

Off to bed with me.



I hope 2016 is a less violent year.