Libra

Let ‘er rip. You have something on your mind, and you know exactly how to deliver it so that it will carry the maximum impact. Make sure you warn any innocent bystanders to duck and cover!

If it’s any consolation, if you are reading this? Its not your ass I plan on kicking.

This shit will NOT spoil my vacation.

I’m such a nerd. My plans for Friday night?

I’m going to the library.

A librarian friend of mine got an earful about some books I needed for my research that I was having no luck locating in this uneducated town. So she arranged for my interlibrary loan from PITT, and now I have 13 books waiting for my perusal.

I now have every intention of spending tonight photocopying and highlighting. The scary part is - I couldn’t be more excited…

Researching for fun, where did I go wrong?

I work too hard. This is a realization that I have about twice a year, and it hit me full force yesterday. I never wanted this… really I was going to be happy finding myself a little niche with decent benefits where I could pull in a decent salary and basically be forgotten till it was time to retire. A job like that would allow me to focus on the more important things in life, like my pursuit for the perfect purse. In a job like that no one notices when I disappear for weeks at a time to visit my ever growing family of friends that can’t seem to agree that it would be much easier for me if they all lived in the same city… preferably on the same street.

Instead somehow I wound up with a career. A career is much different than just a job. You are kinda stuck with it… for life. Or at least till you can retire at 45. The pay is better, along with the benefits, but while I’m allotted 350 personal hours (roughly 44 days) all hell breaks loose if I am away from my phone for more than 47 minutes.

So in an effort to de-stress my life a bit we are implementing the “Get Sabine Demoted” plan ver3.6. I realize that this plan has been tried many times before and each instance has been met with a resounding failure, but I will triumph if I just keep trying. Besides, I’m in Florida now… these guys don’t about the many ways I have already tried to get myself demoted before. Here all my tactics will be fresh and exciting.

I’m hoping I don’t have to resort to dirty tactics, but if necessary there will be tears and much wringing of the hands. I’m not above having a nervous breakdown if it means that from here on out my hardest task will be stapling. All else fails, I’ll requisition all the HR paperwork and demote myself. What? It almost worked last time. I just have to remember this time that the employee’s signature should never match the manager’s.

And if my boss manages to morph this into proof that I need added responsibility… I’m going to need to borrow someone’s truck. What? I can’t haul dead bodies in the back of the Beetle, and they ain’t going to walk themselves to the swamp in Sarah’s backyard…

In other news, you will be happy to know that the Hurricane did not swallow me. It did cancel my event this weekend, but I’m not overly bitter about that. I need the extra time to prep and pack for next week. So happy, to be going back to Texas… so so happy.

(Read on …)

The Beetle now has new feet. You see, it was decided that due to my road tendencies that a “racing” tire would probably be a safer bet than just a standard tire. So I went with a “V speed rated” tire (even though they required new rims as well) – safe for speeds up to 149mph. Not that I see me getting to speeds that high… often.

And my “Happy Early Birthday” present –

The house now has a new brain. I call her the “Purple People Eater” Isn’t she just the cutest thing you have ever seen?

“I commenced to shakin’ and I said “ooh-eee”
It looks like a purple people eater to me.”

Google has a new IM program for gmail users in beta testing. It’s a nifty new tool with great voice options. I sent out invites to all the people I know that have Gmail to come, play, and try things out with me…

If you would like an invite, email me or comment with your gmail address and I will get you hooked up. If you need a Gmail account (is there someone out there that doesn’t use Gmail?)

Sarah is out of surgery and not dead!

She’s a little out of it and heading home. Updates to come later…

I need help.

(Read on …)

I don’t really remember Friday, but I’m going to assume that nothing dreadful happened. Saturday was filled with spa goodness. Massage, facial, and I even got a much needed pedicure. We also found out that the spa offers a “Midnight Manicure” package once a month. It’s a special invite only party that they hold for special customers. Free drinks and food with manicures, pedicures, chair massages, and mini-facials…needless to say both Jeremy and I marked Sept. 16th on our calendars.

Sunday was spent in a drug induced haze doing my damnedest to avoid a migraine… which never hit. At least I got a ton of sleep and a fairly healthy buzz out of it. Today I find myself well rested and ready to tackle a very long list of tasks that need attending to. A lot of you can expect phone calls/emails today for prep for my coming back to Texas.

Prep for this weekend’s event and then Gothic the following weekend are priorities this week. Somehow my schedule is morphing into something that looks amazingly similar to last Fall. Someone should really attempt and talk me out of going to Known World Costume in October…

no, really – we voted. It was unanimous.

There may possibly be nothing better than having a gay guy in your life. After the disaster that was last night and an entire day spent with doctors sticking me with needles – I came home to him cooking me dinner. It was beautiful. After dinner we curled up in bed, watched “Bring It On”, and gelded the boy from last night.

Saturday we are getting facials and massages together at the spa. And I may or may not get my hair cut.

Content now…

There is good sex and there is bad sex…

(Read on …)

I really shouldn’t be trusted with communication devices today. Either I would rant and get myself in trouble with all sorts of people, bitch and be flamed for it, or talk about the nightmare that I had 2 nights ago and really freak Sarah out. See? Today is one of those days where its better that I just let the meme do the posting today.

We shall try again… later.

(Read on …)

More bad press for the SCA…

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/4842625/detail.html

http://pennsicindependent.com/node/142

Yesterday was my first event in Trimaris, and it was good. Admittedly, there is a lot of culture shock to adjust to. Things are different here… some things are very different. The site was small, as was the event. I’m guessing most people were at Pennsic. There wasn’t a light list and the heavy list was different. The heavy list was fought “fighter practice” style – multiple fights on the field, no list ropes. It was kinda a mess to understand as the rules were made up on the fly, but the fighters got to fight a good bit so no one complained too much.

After court a few people headed over to Dan and Shelia’s for burgers and bullshit, it was nice to get to sit around, socialize, and digest an event. I’ve missed that.

I had a few of the ladies fawn over the cotes. I have a feeling there are going to be a few ladies trying to figure out their own Amalia cote.

But on a whole it was a good day spent with good people. I did get one thing out of this event that I haven’t had in a long time. Absolutely no drama. I had forgotten just how quiet an event can be when you know no one. That part was wonderful.

There are photos of course -

Morning List
Evening Court

You’ve gone as far as I’ll go
Now you’re crossing the line
And I am letting you know
Well here’s your reaction

Stand up
I have had enough
Walk away before I finish what you started
Face to face I will put you in your place
End this game before I finish what you started
Face to face everything will change

“Stand Up” by Trapt

I owe you an update, and bullets seem to work best:

- First the matter of where I have been – which was here sitting on my couch… but I have been working with Sarah on the Clan site. I’ve pulled out a few clumps of hair over it, but I’m pretty sure the Clan is going to issue me a Honorary Doctorate… in something. I’ve realized that there is one thing out there that causes me more rage than people who can’t drive. Bugs in PHP code. I get so angry I want to hurt something and end up hiding in my bed with a book as far away from my machines as possible. After I worked out a particularly bad bug yesterday, I actually powered down all my machines. That even shocked me a bit.
- In other big news, I sold the house on Wednesday. Not quite as much as I wanted for it, but when I took into account the money I wasn’t going to have to spend to complete the renovations – it was close enough. So I am back to being landless white trash… and I couldn’t be happier. While a good experience it was fraught with beginners luck and is something I don’t see me doing anytime in the near future. I love renting. Really I do, beacuse on Thursday, when the plumbing broke? Guess who didn’t have to fix it? Guess who didn’t have to pay for someone else to fix it?
- After the keys were traded off there was a bit of a celebratory dinner between the divorced buyer and the single seller. Not entirely sure you could call it a first date, it definitely had some date like tendencies that were refreshingly normal. And our second date is tomorrow. So there must have been a first, yes?
- Monday I pay off my mortgage on the house and cut the contractor his final check, till then though my bank account has the most money I have ever seen in it – ever. I have spent the past 3 days fantasizing about just taking it all and running away to Mexico. If you don’t here from me after Monday, you’ll know I gave in to the temptation. I always thought I’d make a good Isabel…

Just an FYI - I have a reached a point where I really need to weed down some of the older galleries to make room for more. If you have pics you love you may want to go and save them to your personal machine now. I have already started in the oldest and I am working forward.

Any Questions? You know where to find me.

Oh and the space ship didn’t explode, Sarah. It landed on the wrong side of the country… but it didn’t explode.

UPDATE - Whoa. Didn’t mean to cause a panic. To answer some of the questions: No, I am not deleting entire albums. Just weeding out photos - some albums have 250+ photos and I’d like to get that down to 80-100 per. Once that is done I may resize what is left to give me more room - we will just have to wait and see. In addition, if I have already deleted a favorite of yours - its not gone forever I still have all the photos sitting on a hard drive. Let me know what you are looking for and I can upload it for you again. My intention wasn’t to get rid of the photos or your memories! Really, it wasn’t. I just have almost 3 GBs of photos sitting out there and I needed to cull some out.

I asked Sarah to find me a meme so it wouldn’t appear that I was totally slacking. This is what she gave me -

Your meme: “Type each single letter of the alphabet in the address bar of your browser and list what the auto-complete function pulls up first.”

(Read on …)

I’ve been on an acoustic kick lately. I shouldn’t be allowed to find guitars this sexy. Last time that happened I wound up living on an tiny island for almost 9 months… Besides if we aren’t careful next week I’ll be forcing everyone to listen to the best of Sister Hazel.

We aren’t quite there this week, though.

“Burning Bright” by Shinedown

Situations? Check. Hesitations? CheckCheck. Indecision? Yeah – I get that.

Philip will be so proud.

Remember that resolution I made at the first of the year? That one that had something to do with writing a scholarly paper suitable for competition by the end of the year? Well it’s August so I figured it was time to get something accomplished. I started research today. I figure I can procrastinate for a good 6 to 8 weeks in this stage. I can’t really believe I am getting myself into this now, though. I’ve bitched for the past few months about being out touch with the SCA and now on the eve of my return I start a new research project.

Smart, Sabine… real smart.

But it’s been fun, and all the reading combined with the various garb strewn everywhere makes me feel like I’m back in the game. Between trying to figure out what I am taking to Gothic (and how I am going to get it there) and preparing for the 2 Trimarian events I plan on attending before then, I almost feel at home. Almost.

I will say though that the “planning what to wear” part of my first Trimarian event is much more difficult than it was for my first Ansteorran event. Of course in Ansteorra it involved showing up the night before I left at the Hospitaler’s house and digging thru her garb… Since then though, I have become just a bit of a garb slut, but a very picky one. And this time around I have decisions to make. Part of me wants to pull out my 12th night dress and dazzle them. Another part says “BLEND!” Logically it’s August and I should wear something short sleeved and cool, but I’m a masochist so we all know that won’t happen. A large part says “PURPLE!” but I know my best “kit” isn’t one of my purples (How did that happen?)

As of right now the leader is the Raspberry one. It fits (which is a standard that currently rules out my favorite purple one ), and I have jewels and a hood that match it. Sounds like a winning combination to me. I do however reserve the right to change my mind every day… twice a day until the event and then still pack my car with 5 dresses for the one day event.

Damn - I just realized who I sounded like, please forgive me. I’ll crawl into my hole of shame now…