cat's pajamas

I took a nice long hot bath and just went straight to bed.

Friday:

Last day with ma and pa. I set my alarm, because I didn't want to be short on time, getting everything packed. My last breakfast was an omelette, I believe. I packed my suitcase full of goodies, and sheets, and pillowcases, and packed a tote with my birthday presents. I'll put those in my chest and forget about them till the 21st. Ma and Pa tidied the property. I petted the doggy. And before we knew it, it was time to head to the ferry. We drove in the Prius, so the weather has retreated enough to allow that. Finally!

I hugged Ma & Pa goodbye. Hopefully they won't miss me too much.

I read my book on the ferry crossing, and all was well. Brynne and Dan were waiting on the other end, and off we zipped to Bellevue (pretty sure that is where they live, all the tertiary Seattle burrows sort of run together for me). We put up our feet and opened presents. Brynne loved her gourmet food supplies. I got jammies! With a kitty print! And a yoga cat calendar. Booyah! I like cats, too bad I am allergic to them. Moreso Brynne and Dans. I've been sitting in the airport for an hour now, and I haven't sneezed or blown my nose.

After presents, we went into town to the always phenomenal Flo sushi. Nums. Such good sushi. We scarfed it down in no time, and caught up on the details of our lives. From there we went to the theater. Brynne saw Silver Linings Playbook and Dan & I saw Django Unchained. It won't be my favorite Tarantino, and it was about 30 minutes too long, but it was quite enjoyable in many parts. Waltz and Foxx were very dynamic on screen, both apart and together. It was quite funny, but also extreme. Some of the scenes felt like a western kung fu flick.

We met Brynne at Koral and then returned to their home. I ran a lovely bath and soaked and read, and they went to sleep. I soon followed, in my own bed of course.

Saturday:

Slept in. Well, slept in till 10. Brynne was off working out and being fabulous.

And since writing that sentence, I've gotten on and off the plane and returned home.

So I had waffles for breakfast and that was good, and I followed it up with a pulled pork sandwich was good but ultimately I don't think it agreed with me. Dan took me to the airport, and I had plenty of time. Once I got on the plane though, things started going south. I felt nauseous and that sensation of not knowing if you are too hot or cold. We were taking off and BAM I used my airsickness bag, something I've never had cause to use. Thankfully it wasn't that large of an amount and I kept it contained and my neighbors were nice about it, some even handed me extra bags, just in case. I heard a "oh no!" from somewhere else in the plane, obviously caused by my expellations. When the seat belt sign went off, I went to the bathroom and trashed the bag and up came the rest of breakfast. Oh joy. I then spent the next two hours quite miserable. The ginger ale helped, though that came up later, but I'm jumping ahead of myself. Anyway. We landed a bit early, but the luggage took its sweet time coming. Eventually it did arrive, and I waited for Nate at the pickup area. He got some dinner, though I was ill so I opted out of everything but a soda. I took a few sips and then had to say, "Nate, can you pull over to the side so I can puke out the car door?" Which he did with efficiency, and I did with...well I feel bad for that person's driveway but it WAS mostly fluids at that point.

At Nate's, I took a hot shower and worked on fluids. I napped and kept warm and watched him play games. Once I had stabilized and didn't feel ill no more, I drove home to Santa Cruz. No more vomit! I'm just tired and weary.

Not a fun way to end my trip. I hope whatever it was isn't planning on staying. Just a bit of unmanageable food, or something.

Now to get stuff done, after a long long sleep.

J&J&E&M

Sometimes I open my blog in a new tab and then forget about it, then I notice it and go "oohhh I still need to blog."

Today was a nice day. Took the chance to sleep in. Had my usual breakfast of gingerbread cookies and tea, and when Dad came in from outdoors, he fried me up some eggs and I put that between toast and had some bacon with that. Nums!

At 5:20ish, I hopped in the van and set out to meet my friend Jared for dinner. I've never driven the van before, and I can't even remember being in a car so far off the ground, so it took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I was pretty comfortable with it. It is a really easy car to drive.

I picked up Jared from his place of work, and we met Jamie, Eleanor, and Marlowe at Pizza Factory in Kingston. It was a nice little place, and the pizza was tasty. Even better was the company. It's nice to share time with nice, wonderful people. It sucks I won't probably see them till NEXT Christmas, but ah, at least I'll see them. And maybe I'll get some time off between now and then to come on up. So much can happen in a year.

Like moving out and getting a job.

I bid adieu after the food, and returned home. We watched The Iron Lady, which was good, though I only had one eye trained on it as I was computering it up at the same time. The makeup was very good and Streep was fantastic.

I spent some time scanning my sketchbook. Tomorrow I go from Seabeck to Seattle to see Brynne & Dan. That'll be nice. And then I return to Santa Cruz. I still have a week left in my vacation, and then my birthday is coming up.

AHk. How do I plan something for my birthday? I don't really have any friends in Santa Cruz, so I'd have to go up to Oakland or San Francisco...but I can't just make someone host a party, but I don't know anywhere to have people meet me. Maybe I should just meet a couple people, or something. I don't knooow. My birthday makes me anxious.

noo, not Balin!

I slept in, and got up just long enough to hug Nate and Helen goodbye. Then I went back to sleep for a bit. Then I got up and had my first cup of tea of the day, and some cookies. You know, for breakfast.

Ma and Pa came back after a hike and we spent the day relaxing. We played some Skip-Bo. I lost. Had turducken sandwiches. They were good. And I had potatoes and gravy for dinner. After that we watched Fellowship of the Ring, which was awesome.

It was nice to take it easy. Tomorrow I'll try to visit my friends Jared and Jamie, and get some scanning happening. Friday I head across the water to Brynne & Dan's, and then they'll take me to the airport! Then back to Santa Cruz, where I'll spend a week probably watching TV and eating junk food. Hahah...hmmn.

I have my towel, and it is magnificent

Ahhh what a lovely mellow Christmas. It did snow, but only about a slushy inch, and it has been raining, so things should be all right.

As per the tradition, we three started with our legos. And they were Hobbit themed! I got a Mirkwood elf and Kili and Fili set. There are Legos for each dwarf, but you have to buy each set to get them all, and that is a LOT of extra Legos. I got Hobbit feet socks, and a Tardis beach towel, and a Gryffindor snuggie, and a Hark! A Vagrant calendar, and jammies, and socks, and chocolate a plenty, and bike reflectors, and a speaker thingy, and new shoes. A pretty nice assortment of swag! Oh and a sweeeeet gift certificate.

Breakfast was omlettes and sausages. And later on there was spanakopita. It took me a while to assemble my Lego. I was the last to finish opening presents. Ma liked her John Muir portrait, Dad liked his boat, Helen liked her garlic, and Nate liked his Adventure Time. At least....I hope they liked them? They seemed to. Lots of gifts all around.

Poor Ma and Helen were coughing all day. We played Agricola and Helen won. We hot tubbed as it rained. I used my Turbie Twist, which is a towel specifically for drying hair in a bun thingy. I've always wanted one but never got one, and now I have one!

I'm determined to not get to sick.

The turducken was good, but I was much too full to consume a lot of it. Christmas dinner was very early, and bountiful.

It was a very nice day. Good gifts, good company, lots of fun. Too bad everyone is getting so sick, and Nate and Helen leave tomorrow. But I have a few more days!

Turducken in the Oven

I think last year I was up till about 3am working on the landscape for Nathan...now I'm only up till 2 finishing (well, I've since finished) a painting for Dad. Assessing what I've brought, I think I've neglected Mom on the gift side of the spectrum. Helen has a good amount. Spoiling Helen!

I was the second up, after Dad. Ma was in bed feeling a bit poorly, as was Helen. Everyone is bringing a cold to the table. Here is hoping my health holds out!

When all were up and before daylight receded  we trekked down into the valley. Not a bad hike, even if it was impeded by the snow. Doggy was very enthusiastic about the outing. Dinner was burgers with pomegranate and artichoke following. We took on the daunting task of playing Agricola. A Youtube tutorial helped us immensely and we managed to get through a game in the family mode, which is the easiest way but still is very difficult. We will probably have to play it through a couple times before we add in the cards, which will make it all that much harder. The entirety of the game play took as long as the turducken took in the oven. Yes. We shall be eating a duck stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey...or however the order goes.

I finished the night with Psych and a painting, and then I wrapped my presents. It's quite light on my end of things, so I hope the rest haven't gone too extravagant.

It is Christmas, technically. Forecast says snow, I say, "dear God, no."

painting marathon: commence

Annnnd now I am up late working on art. Going to retire in a minute.

Only have one painting left to do! Hurray! I have a neat little set up happening at the desk. Last Christmas eve I was up late finishing a painting. I think this one miiiight be a repeat. Haha.

Had eggs and bacon and it was good. Helped put some more wood on the pile. I met my friend Marcus at Global Bean for lunch, and we caught up on happenings of the past year, and future plans, and movies, and TV, and all that good stuff. It was good to be a bit social. He has grown a beard since I last saw him, but does not plan to keep it for much longer.

Afterwards we returned home and went into "waiting for Nathan and Helen" mode. Their flight was delayed many many hours. We watched My Week With Marilyn. Ma and Pa took a nap when it became obvious that we wouldn't have to leave to pick the two up till after midnight. I got to work on my art. Started watching Psych because it seemed like a good background show. Five episodes later, I was right about that. Five episodes and three paintings. Oh I also painting earlier in the day.

Now time to sleep. Christmas Eve! Then Christmas!

not many days left and a lot to do

Dang. I have a bunch of Christmas art to do and I haven't quite started...it. Ahhhh! Well...I'll get on that tomorrow night. I can have a few late nights, no biggie. My recuperating time is over, time to work!

Got a bit early because we were planning to meet with Celia, but time ran out and she had to catch her flight so that didn't happen.

I read and sat in front of the fire and took it pretty easy. Ate a lot of cookies. Dad made hash browns and cheesey omelette and it was good. We watched Strictly Ballroom and the first episode of North & South. Then they went to bed, so I went to bed, and then I realized I went to bed at 9:30, what is up with that?

Tomorrow I'll meet my friend Marcus for a bit, then it is time to buckle down and draw some presents!

orcs, goblins, dwarfs, oh my!

Oh this bed is so comfy and warm. I love it. I slept way way in, and it was great. Letting my body recoup. I need to get back into yoga or something, don't want to strain my body out.

Dad made me a poached egg on toast with melted cheese. That was awesome. Mom baked cookies. I ate cookies. I petted the dog and the cat. I sat in front of the fire and took it easy. We also hot tubbed. That was nice. A few winters ago I slipped on the ice and hurt my bum on the steps coming out of the hot tub, but they were not icy today.

We went to Origami Sushi for dinner. Num nums. The snow makes it difficult to get in and out of our driveway, but from there out it is okay driving. Anyway, after dinner we saw The Hobbit! AHhhH! Just so good, and the second time around I could greater appreciate the little things in the battle sequences. Such a wonderfully done movie. Ahhh! I should be good on watching it for another two weeks...hahaha.

Got home late. Will probably get up a bit early tomorrow and have lunch with Celia.

babies babies everywhere, and not a one of them is bawling

11 hours to get from Santa Cruz to Seabeck. I think that is quite amazing. It takes about the same amount of time to go from train and boat from SeaTac to Bremerton as it does to fly from San Francisco to SeaTac.

And despite being the holidays, it was all quite easy and not at all stressful. Alarm went off at 6. Rolled out of bed at 6:30. Threw my computer into my bag, and other charger cords, and off I went at around 7:15ish. I swung by Safeway and got doughnuts for breakfast. For me and for Nathan, who drove me to the airport. There was some traffic getting to Redwood City, and a bit heading out, but nothing too bad. It didn't take that long to get to the airport. And it didn't take long at all to check my bag (no line!) or go through security (very minimal line) or get to the terminal (right there!). I had about an extra hour. I'm a "plan to arrive three hours early" type, and while I was delayed by traffic, I still had an hour and 20 minutes to kill while waiting for my flight. So I read the Patrick Melrose novel collection and went on the internet and generally took it easy. On my flight were no less than five babies, and you know what? They were really calm! There was minimal crying on ascent and descent, but who can blame the babies when they can't pop their ears due to the pressure? I was seated right next to a mother holding her eight week old, Catherine, and let me tell you that was one cute baby. Big chubby cheeks. Big blue eyes. Just sweet. It fed and then napped and generally was mild. The mom, whose name I did not learn, was really nice. I was sympathetic to her plight of flying as a mother with a baby, and talked about how I traveled a lot while younger. The baby was a champ. The flight was pretty smooth too, a bit bumpy but not bad.

The chill seeped in almost as soon as I was off the plane. Bah!

My bag was on the conveyor belt waiting for me in baggage claim. So I claimed it and off I went to the rail. I talked to ma and let her know I arrived. Got on the train and it left right away. The heaters were on, and it was quite cozy inside. I got off at the University stop and carried my bag down the harbor steps. Didn't want to jostle it too much, what with all the frames inside. The ferry for Bremerton didn't depart till 4:20, so I had some time to get some McDonald's. Totally healthy. On the ride over I read, and napped, and listened to ladies talk about tattoos and body mods, but in a reasonable manner. About how tattoos hurt, and how one woman was made fun of and called a gypsy just because she had pierced ears.

Ma and Pa were waiting for me when we got off the ferry, and we drove back to Seabeck. The snow started to accumulate the farther out we got, and pretty soon it was ankle deep.

At home we had a quinuoa, salmon, bean dinner and watched Police Academy 2. Now we are hanging out by the fire. The cat is currently Cosmic Creepers. I put some audiobooks on Dad's mp3 player and he is polishing silver while listening to Hitchhiker's Guide. Ma is reading NOT Eyre Affair or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Ah oh well.

It's good to be home. Have to figure out what is happening when. I still have art to make!