Further Assimilations

I'm quite pleased! My work is giving me an extra hour to vote tomorrow; I think I'll take either a long lunch or a late morning. I'm loving getting up an hour later by my body's clock, but I know all too well that I'll adjust soon. And I'm gonna hate driving home at night for the next few months.

This morning, I gave all the buttons on my radio the chance to hold my attention by playing some music. Sadly, they all insisted on taking phone calls instead, so they lost to the mp3 player.

I'm sorry I couldn't make it to VTSFFC Halloween - especially since I'd been looking forward to it for months :( But 2 tanks of gas hit my check card a lot harder than they used to, and I just couldn't swing it. Those VTSFFCers I don't see at MarsCon, I hope to see at Technicon.

Since my original Saturday plans didn't work out, I ended up going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Naro theater down here. It was a pretty fun show, with some good cast members and excellent costumes. It suffered from "line creep" - so much shouting of lengthy response lines that 75% of the movie's drowned out - but hell, it's not like I don't know all the dialogue already. Yes, I dressed up :) They run their show about once a month, and I'm tempted to make it a repeating thing for me.

Sunday was a very good day. In a seeming non-sequitur, I want to mention that I love raininva very very much. She's always reminding me why I'm so happy to be with her.

raininva left to head back home a few hours ago. She got to leave work early Friday, so managed to arrive here in time to see the new house in the light. Turns out I picked out a place she approves of, so that's one less worry for me. Rain's already posted pictures she took Friday, and we're planing where to put stuff - at least we know we'll have room for all our junk. I hope we can start having people over more often now that we have more room.

The weekend felt good, like we squeezed a lot of quality time into 48 hours or so - and this time, I'll see her again in less than a week, so the missing her is a little more tolerable this time out. It was fun talking about all the plans we are making, and guessing about what's to come in the future. The one sour note was the 45-minute wait for lunch at the new Red Robin down here - but the management was very apologetic, and comped our food. Our waitress was polite, but a bit spacy, and I'm not sure English was her primary language; apparently, the kitchen staff was completely out of it. Guess they still have bugs in the system to deal with.

I get to spend the week carrying stuff over to the house a few boxes at a time, trying to sort out what I can do without for a week. (The computer, for example, will be one of the last things moved *grin*.) If anyone would like the new address, e-mail me (that isn't changing) and I'll pass it along. Same with the phone # once I have one!

Yesterday started good. I didn't feel well when I got up in the morning, but I never feel well if I get up before 10am, so I didn't think twice about it. In the first half of my work day, I completed the resurrection of a dead Titanium PowerBook with a broken hinge and sheared display wires, which was nice bit of ego-boost.

By lunchtime, I realized that my throat was super sore, and I was pretty dehydrated. I took a break and went to the tiny pharmacy a couple doors down, and came back to work. My nose had started running too, so I grabbed some tissues.

By mid-afternoon, there was no doubt that I was sick. I was coughing, blowing my nose, had a nice headache and serious nausea. Throw in some light-headedness and chills, and you know I was really enjoying myself by that time. I had to reassemble an iBook in that condition, too, which as I've mentioned has 50 screws in about 10 different sizes. Literally. I figure it was sinus brought on mostly by over-exerting myself over the weekend and the crappy weather on Saturday.

Finally, work was over, but there was an event I had to attend yesterday evening, to insure I'd be properly prepared for something else happening Saturday. I'd have blown it off, but that would have screwed up the next month's worth of planning. Only problem? No one had sent me directions yet.

I drove to two places where this group had met before, but they weren't at either place. In desperation, I did my first bit of intentional wardriving: cruising slowly around the residential neighborhood seeing if my iPaq would pick up an open wireless access point. I actually found one, and confirmed that no one had sent me e-mail, so I gave up and headed home.

The good side of that was that I really shouldn't have been around all those other people when I was sick, and I was able to head to bed early. On top of that, I got home in time to catch a phone call from raininva before I dropped off, and we talked for a good long time, which cheered me up a lot. On the other hand, my upcoming plans are trashed.

I'm still not well, but I'm better than I was yesterday. I can function, and my throat and stomach are mostly okay. If my nose and head would follow suit, I'd be fine. I might even go down to see Tom at the pub tonight.

*snort*

Posting from the handheld, since the computer's back in Virginia Beach. Rain's off at Origins, and I'm got a kitty magnetically attached to my lap - she hasn't seen me in two weeks, nor Rain for a couple days. Boy did she cuss me when I walked in.

Brought some card sets up for this evening. I'll probably get cleaned up and leave for Blacksburg before long. More driving. Good thing my car's comfy as they go.

It's interesting trying to read webcomics on the screen of a handheld. I wonder if I could manage to save up for an nice eBay laptop by Xmas, one I can shoehorn OS X onto.

Kitty's purring.

As raininva likes to point out, five years ago last night, I was extremely wound up, and hoping I was making the right decision for our future together.

I worked through the tension that night by playing Quake for quite some time. :)

These last five years have, without a doubt, been the happiest years of my life. I want to thank not just Rain, but all of the friends who have supported us.

Here's to many many more!

Quite a long weekend. A pretty good one in a lot of ways, but long nevertheless.

Thursday, raininva left for DragonCon to do some contracting for WizKids. Thursday night, after my afternoon nap, I yanked half of my office out into the living room for sorting and re-arrangement. I ended up with a huge plastic storage tub full of gaming stuff that I don't want to get rid of, but I don't have room for in the office. That went to the storage along with another tub of loose items; several empty boxes that were just wasting cubic went to the trash, along with two bags full of stuff that just wasn't doing anyone any good.

( Friday through Monday )Today, Rain will be home when I get home - and I'm really glad to know that. I missed her terribly!! Welcome home, sweetie!

In the midst of praising Rain for the incredible job she did last night, I inadvertently insulted her by suggesting that she may not have been able to handle her opponent in Sudden Death. As has been pointed out, her opponent had the advantage, but that doesn't in any way mean that she couldn't have won.

Sweetie, I apologize.

Today is the fourth anniversary of my marriage to the wonderful, beautiful, raininva. I love you forever and a day, sweetie!

Tuesday is, of course, production day here at the paper. The last weeks have been rough, as the salespeople have seriously overloaded the production staff with full-page full-color spec ads for accounts they probably won't be able to land; incorrect runsheets giving us faulty information about the existence, size, and placement of ads; and major changes made at the last minute, after the last minute, the day after the last minute, and "you understand that the printer is printing these pages now" after the last minute.

None of this is unusual in the printing industry, of course, but the last weeks have been unusually ridiculous. My stress levels were so bad last week, that I had stomach pain for the next three days. So, last Wednesday I went to my boss and explained to him that: a) I was no longer working more than 13.5 hours straight on Tuesdays, and that b) I was no longer going to kill myself compensating for the careless work of others. I had more of a leg to stand on with "b" than one might expect; I'm the only one here who knows what's really going on and how to fix it when it breaks, so if my work burns me out completely, my boss has a real situation he'll have to deal with.

I think it was worth it. I'm tired this morning, but I'm not wild-eyed, wired, and shaky, and my stomach hurts only a little. Lunch ought to handle that.

raininva is going to try to score some MechWarrior: Dark Age starter sets today for us to try out tonight. Anyone want to come over and help us try out a new miniatures game?

I've been feeling grumpy all morning... but you know, it's amazing how a few minutes of conversation with a loved one can brighten up one's entire day.

I love you so much, Rain! Thank you!