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Dec. 31st, 2008 @ 09:35 pm Happy Fake Holiday for getting drunk.....
location: home
Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: Theme from Dexter

It's not that I hate New Years Eve... I just hate that folks take this as some sort of excuse to drink to excess. Sorta like St. Paddy's Day, another 'holiday' I don't celebrate.

I guess I am just grumpy so I apologize if I offend.

Over the past year I've had many ups and downs.... the overly expensive house repairs that we'll be paying off for a very long time. The death of my mother. The struggles of so many people this year with the recession and financial hardships that has hit everyone.

If I made resolutions, then the only one I would make would be to get the bills under control and life to be better for all my friends and family.

May Light Shine on you and Give you Illumination in the coming year my friends.

xposted to ravenmcsidhe
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Dec. 26th, 2008 @ 08:53 pm Snow...snow and yet more snow
location: Somewhere else
Current Mood: drained

So, we escaped the house yesterday to SJ & BJ's house. Mainly because we were sick of the same walls and the intermittent power drops, and also because our normal Christmas celebration is to go bowling and to the movies as a group. However, because of the snow and ice on the roads that was not to be. So instead we trooped over here and brought our jammies as well.

Unfortunately our passenger tire chain broke as we pulled into park at the house, so here we still are.

SJ and I took Middle Spawn and Her Boy off to their place so that they could try and get the chains off of his car (they accidentally got one wrapped around the axel) and they needed a jack to get it up, so we took them in and dropped them off with a jack and headed out to do chores. Later we found out the jack BENT while they were attempting to use it, so we'll need to get it replaced soon.

Mainly we were wanting to go to the company store and to see if we could find another set of chains (no luck on the chain front) but we did make it to the company store. Then we went to Whole Foods to pick up dinner stuff -- today there was no way to make it up the hill without chains at the moment to go back home and made the plans to stay the night here again.

The plan tomorrow is to have the Spouse attempt to take the other Two Spawn home (hopefully they will be able to get there) and I will stay one more night and doggie sit for the guys so they could go and do their normal Saturday stuff.

So now we are relaxing from dinner and just sorta sitting around and vegging while SJ tries to figure out his new XBox and we wait for the pie to cool enough to cut (apple cranberry....yum).
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Dec. 22nd, 2008 @ 08:03 pm What the hell are wrong with people?
location: Home
Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: Space Chimps on the boobtoob

I ran across this headline on Yahoo just now..... and now that I've read the article I just want to go out and add chlorine to the gene pool!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_re_us/lesbian_rape
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Dec. 22nd, 2008 @ 10:06 am Snow....week 2
location: Snug at home
Current Mood: awake

So a couple of pictures of the yard from this morning:

This is the front yard from the porch:

Front Yard

This is one of the trees to the side of the front yard:

Tree


Looks like we have @ 2 foot of snow. I was thinking earlier that it's a good thing we had the kitchen and roof fixed this past year - with the weight of the snow at the moment we wouldn't have a house.

Hope everyone out there is safe, warm and dry!
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Dec. 21st, 2008 @ 01:29 pm Pictures!
location: Home where its snowing again!
Current Mood: chipper

Here's a shot of the Gingerbread house we made and of the Middle Spawn's Boy in his Yule pjs and one of the littlest Yule Shrub (grin)


Photobucket

The Boy

Photobucket

The Gingerbread House

Tree_2008

The Littlest Yule Shrub
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Dec. 21st, 2008 @ 11:26 am Happy Solstice everyone
location: Home
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Legend

So Solstice has come with it's pressies and paper thrown everywhere. The anticipated heavy winds didn't actually hit us (thank the Gods!) and we only lost power for a brief moment last night.

The Middle Spawn and her Boy were able to come out last night once Dad went and picked them up (small issue with tire chains and the need of a jack) so they were able to be here for the morning carnage.

Stockings were stuffed with more sugar than any one person every needed, and toys for all.

I fixed french toast and oatmeal and now we've all settled down for our coma until later. We'll have ham and yams and probably okra for dinner as it's what is in the fridge.

Baking count has hit an all time high.....
3 types of biscotti; cranberry pistachio, chocolate chunk almond (with splenda) and chocolate chunk cranberry for the Middle Spawn who cannot eat tree nuts.
3 different pans of fudge (and I finally found instructions on how to do it so it doesn't turn out grainy)
a gingerbread house with decorations
ginger snaps
peppermint bark
coconut haystacks
The Elder Spawn also made peanut brittle and another pan of peppermint bark for the friends.

Hope your solstice was bright!
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Dec. 20th, 2008 @ 09:47 am Brrrrr..... baby it's cold outside
location: Home
Current Mood: chipper

The temp outside was reading 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) when I came out in to the livingroom at 9:30 this morning. A little too cold for me and also apparently for our well pump...yep it's frozen so no water at our house until the neighbor digs it out with the little portable backhoe I just saw head down the back of our drive to the well house.

Once it's dug out he can put a heat lamp on it to defrost it all (we've gone through this once before - I think our second winter out here).

I've been baking up a storm while I've been working at home; roads have been so frozen that we've just not gone anywhere. Last night the Spouse and I took a trip into the grocery store. Roads were fairly passable until the trip back, and by that time they'd started refreezing some and were becoming a bit slicker than we'd like.

Last night I made biscotti - Cranberry pistachio for myself and a dibetic almond chocolate for the Spouse. We've also done haystacks, a gingerbread house, gingersnaps, gingbread loaves for all my team, and fudge. The girls also did fudge that instead turned into a mousse type dessert (it's been spooned into chocolate cups and had crushed candy canes sprinkled on top) and peanut brittle. Today we'll do peppermint bark and probably attempt fudge again (grin).

The girls and I took some time off and went out into the yard to play for a bit in the early afternoon -- it's absolutely beautiful at the moment. The sun is bright, the snow is dazzling and the sky is so blue.... too bad it's so freakin' cold!


Gana
Youngest Spawn and her fort

Megan
Elder Spawn in her fort

Tree
Tree in front of my livingroon

I opened a Photobucket account so I could put pictures in *crossed fingers and hopes it works right*

One more day to Solstice for the girls.... they are really looking forward to it. Normally we've held off on placing presents around the tree until just a couple of days before, but this year we did it the day after we got the tree, so they've sat there, tempting all to wonder, what is in those gaily colored packages?!???!

I hope that this finds everyone on my friends list warm and safe and may you have a happy celebration of the season, no matter what you believe in.
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Dec. 14th, 2008 @ 11:07 am Its beginning to look a lot like Yule
location: Home, with the snow
Current Mood: content

We had a lovely Festival of Lights yesterday -- I spent the morning hours making gingerbread for the house we're going to put together today (this is the first one we've ever done) and picking up around the house for company.

I threw together chicken pot pie for the meal and it was happily eaten by all.

We'd planned on having folks just stay over until the morning as the forcast was for some heavy snow (we'd gotten a couple of inches the night before) but the Yule tree in the living room had Miss A choked up all day and evening long so the Spousal Unit braved the icy and snowy roads to take her and Mr. G home. It was a good thing as the snow picked up and we've about 6-8 inches in the yard today. With the temps hovering at freezing, it's a given that the roads will be fairly ugly until we get off the hill.

The Elder and Youngest Spawn had planned on having friends over for the making and giving of treats and gifties, but with the snow it's been cancelled for the time being.

I'll be addressing the cards and getting them out in the mail this week. All in all preperations for Yule are pretty good.

I hope that this finds all of you healthy and happy.
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Dec. 7th, 2008 @ 09:12 am Huh….so sheep & men = gay marriage? WTF?!!!?!
I read one of the more disturbing news articles on the Gay Marriage argument this morning. From our local station, King 5 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28079776) the University of Washington student newspaper used a silhouette picture of a man and a sheep to illustrate an anti-Gay marriage OP/Ed.

How in the hell is a sheep and a man equal to two committed individuals who happen to be of the same sex who want to be married to one another? *shakes head* I’ve no idea of where the writer of the column’s head was but the use of the picture to (quote) “There was a slippery slope argument made in the article about gay marriage leading to other forms of union and that was what illustration was meant to illustrate,” said Jeglum.

Once again I have to ask…. WTF?

Earlier this week one of the radio talk shows asked the noon question of does not being in support of Gay Marriage automatically make you homophobic. Personally, I don’t think so. I do however think that it means that you are a bigot with all of the lovely connotations of that word.

Marriage has never been about a sacred contract between a man, a woman and God, it’s a property transaction dressed up in religious frippery. Marriage was a transaction between heads of households – ‘I’ll trade you three good cows and grazing rights for the right to have sex with your daughter, plant children in her body and cook and clean up after me.’ *shakes hands* ‘Let’s stand up in front of the priest next Friday to make it known to all.’ Or ‘Hey, if I offer up this amount of gold and my daughter, can I have that plot of land down by the lake?’

It really strikes a chord within me when SuzieQ and JoeBlow can run down and get married and divorced 12 times if they want because they are ‘a man and a woman’ but Rusty and Steve who en together 37 years (through real sickness and health, richer and poorer) cannot.

*arrrrgh*

In the holiday spirit I’ve been knitting and baking. Made 18 mini loaves of gingerbread yesterday for my team mates at work and then chewy ginger snaps….hmmmmmm tasty.
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Nov. 28th, 2008 @ 11:16 am Travels with the Spouse and the Post-Thanksgiving wrap-up
location: Home
Current Mood: Yep, Still

Monday the Spouse and I returned from our whirlwind trip to Rhode Island to visit with the Trad family there.

The weather was beautiful, cold but beautiful. The days were clear and sunny and it really wasn’t a big deal that the temps never crept up over 30 while we were there.

We stayed two nights at Mr. T’s house (a lovely manor house in Providence that is just lovely) and we got our exercise by going up and down the stairs to the third floor where we were staying. Which was a good thing as Mr. T insists on feeding folks huge amounts of food. And the food was divine….. yummmmmmm

We spent another three nights out in the boonies of Rhode Island (is there really such a place, for such a small state it certainly has a lot undeveloped areas) with two lovely ladies. Where we were feted with Portuguese sausage (chourise – spelling anyone?) Johnny cakes with eggs for breakfast. Hmmmmmm.

The flights to and fro were decent, only a full plane on the last leg of the journey back. All in all a fabulous trip.

Black Friday, or the After-Thanksgiving Survival Guide

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day… the Eldest Spawn and I cooked like mad women while the Youngest Spawn kibitzed and kept us entertained with reading from the current issue of Cosmo.

We turned off all the computers *tgsp!* and closed the TV cabinet and devoted the day to talking and listening to music. It’s nice when it happens. Between the cleaning of the house and cooking we were quite busy.

For dinner we roasted a 15 lb. turkey, and baked a 5 lb. ham with a cinnamon/clove/nutmeg apple glaze. It was sooooo yummy. We also had fresh cranberry sauce, canberry sauce, baked yams, candied yams (for the Middle Spawn special), mashed potatoes, stuffing, relish trays, rolls, green bean casserole, and apples & onions.

Wednesday I baked an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and two pecan pies for dessert.

We had all the Spawn home, and the Middle one brought her Boy with her. We also had Youngest Spawns BFF from grade school and her on again off again Boy over for dinner.

After dinner SJ and BJ swung by and had pie with us.

So the only question was whether or not we’d get up early and hit the stores for the early sales but there really is nothing on sale that I’d really buy as a gift for any of my family or friends. The only place that may get my business is one of the bookstores.

I have to think twice about a store that can take an item and put it on sale for 60+% off and still make a profit is ripping me off somewhere.
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Nov. 18th, 2008 @ 10:26 am Isn't that special? and other random moments in my brain....
location: work
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Zune on random

We sat and watched a goodly portion of the 101 best moments from SNL, can't say that I agreed with the majority of them, but it did bring up some great memories of watching SNL.

*runs around flailing like a flailing thing*

I'll be off-line for the most part from tomorrow through Monday for a quick trip to Rhode Island (yeah I know it's not spelled correctly, but heck if I know why) to see the 'other' family and while I'll have a laptop and wireless card, I expect that I'll actually spend time talking to folks face to face (te gasp!!)

I'm looking forward to seeing folks, but not to spending several hours trapped in too-small seats with strangers around me who will be most likely wearing too much perfume.

Sigh.... I hate my 'allergies'.

Work continues to be work like, which is a good thing and something that we encourage to continue going forward. Not that there has been any real talk about layoffs but still, with the rest of the world trying to dig itself out from the recession from hell, if you are working, then hold on to your job with both hands and never let go.

Back to your regularly scheduled programs in progress :o)
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Oct. 31st, 2008 @ 10:03 am Samhain Blessings
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Dead Can Dance Shuffle Mix

Blessings to you on this Sacred night no matter what your beliefs.

May you be safe from ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and all that go bump in the night!
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Oct. 24th, 2008 @ 02:28 pm Crappity crap crap.....
location: work
Current Mood: crappy
Current Music: The Unquiet Grave; Annwn

It started out so well too.... sigh.

I spent all day yesterday at work going through the 8 boxes of archives and entering the data into the Record Retention spreadsheet and getting them ready to go off-site and out of my life (huzzah). Unfortunately when they came today to pick up the boxes I found out that 4 were overfull and would need to have some items removed, which means...yep you guessed it... I'll have to re-enter it into the spreadsheets....

Sigh. My hands hurt like a somabitch and I really don't want to have to do it again.

Oh well.... it'll be done by the end of the day and I'll have the weekend to *hopefully* recover.

I'd just ignore it all but we are supposedly moving offices at the end of January and the new ones are really small in comparison.... 9X9 rather than 11.25 X 8.75 and I have a larger than usual desk due to it being one that I can raise or lower at the touch of a button for my back issues. So I am trying to get as much stuff out of my office as possible so that it'll be easier after the move.

Le sigh.

The weather is crap, but not raining at least.
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Oct. 21st, 2008 @ 12:05 pm As seen everywhere
location: work
Current Mood: confused

I think I am surprised by the results, which is unusual for me - I rarely see any abstract or impressionistic art that appeals to me....

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Non-conformist, Visionary, and Independent


Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of what may appear to others as visual realities. Western had been underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. It allowed the progressive thinking artists to show a different side to the world around them. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a 'new kind of art' which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. Abstract artists created art that was diverse and reflected the social and intellectual turmoil in all areas of Western culture.


People that chose abstract art as their preferred artform tend to be visionsaries. They see things in the world around them and in people that others may miss because they look beyond what is visual only with the eye. They rely on their inner thoughts and feelings in dealing with the world around them instead of on what they are told they should think and feel. They feel freed from the tendancy to be bound by traditional thought and experiences. They look more toward their own ideas and experiences than what they are told by their religious upbringing or from scientific evidence. They tend to like to prove theories themselves instead of relying on the insight or ideas of others. They are not bound by common and mundane, but like to travel and have new experiences. They value intelligence, but they also enjoy a challenge. They can be rather argumentative when they are being forced or feel as if they are being forced to conform.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

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Oct. 19th, 2008 @ 07:39 pm Another weekend come and gone
Current Music: soundtrack of 'Baroque' in the background

We had mucho grande plans for the weekend and actually got a couple of things done ut not enough....never enough.

I spent Saturday morning piddling around the house and then headed in to Bothell to take Youngest Spawn to the doctors office to be checked out. She's been somewhat weirdly cycling this week and then threw her back out Friday morning moving across the living room.

Do you remember when doctors would actually give you something for pain? Now it's all 'take ibuprofen and heat/ice it'. Could have saved the insurance a whopping office visit fee as we were already doing it. Sigh.

Afterwards the Mister and I headed out to pick up a cycle trainer attachment that I found on Craigs List and a Movie that he'd ordered and was in at Borders.

Between time strolling around the bookstore (scored the new Valor book by Tanya Huff *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*) and wandering through the grocery store trying to see if anything looked like food by the time we got home it was 7:00.

Sunday morning I worked my way through the laundry and started a pot of veggie lentil chili -- it's been a while since I'd made any so it was an experiment. I forgot just how much lentils will swell -- what had started out as a layer in the bottom of the crock pot with diced tomatoes, chilies, garlic, onions and assorted spices inflated to fill the entire freakin' crock pot. I have enough chili to feed another 12 people.

I expect I'll end up having it for lunch several days this week.
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Oct. 11th, 2008 @ 10:36 am &!^^@%$#(!u*hw^^@u&!
Current Mood: cranky

stupid internets ate my post.....
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Oct. 11th, 2008 @ 10:23 am Turn up the heat, it's cold outside
location: Home
Current Mood: cold

It was 31 degrees when I got up this morning. I'm not quite ready for the cold temps, but I'll adapt. I always do.

The cold is doing better, just in the final terminal stages with the requisite sneezing, coughing and blowing of noses. I'll be happy when it's done and overwith.

In part due to the above mentioned death throes of the cold I didn't go into the gym with the Middle Spawn this morning. Her gym was offering a free day to guests with member but I just am not up to doing the treadmill and stopping every 5 minutes to blow the nose and cough up the lung. She was disappointed but I'd warned her I was not probably going to be up for it. It makes me sad as I don't get to see her much or spend any time with her and it would have been nice to have a chance to do some mom/daughter bonding.

I've tulip bulbs that must go into a planter or something this weekend -- we just have to find a deep enough one. I was hoping that I had something here at the house that would work, but no.... all the ones I have are too shallow. They'll be okay for the three flag bulbs that I bought but not much else.
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Oct. 9th, 2008 @ 11:20 am Fall sneaks in on little cat feet
location: Work
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End

While I have felt fall in the air since early August it was readily apparent in my yard and home early this morning. The heater kicked on this morning while trying to tame my hair and then when we stepped outside it was to frost on the porch and thin sheets of ice on the standing water from the last rainfall.

The Head Cold From Hell is finally breaking loose and now attempting to drain. The voice has returned somewhat, now I have a gravelly contralto with occasional loss of volume so I am still being avoidy to phone calls as I am hard to hear.

Tomato bisque soup with cheetoes makes me really happy at the moment.
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Oct. 7th, 2008 @ 11:45 am Are you there God(dess)? It's me, Raven....
location: Work, for the itme being
Current Mood: sick

I know I've been quiet and not very active but don't you think a sinus infection followed up by the Head Cold From Hell with Laryngitis is a bit much? Can I please be excused now, I'd like to stop feeling like a wall has fallen onto my chest and my head is in a vise.

It sure makes attempting to attend meetings or conference calls a joy.

Enough meepling.

Work continues to frustrate and exhaust me in turn. If I could only get the various teams who keep sending my emails round in circles together in one room to beat to death with a bat talk it would make my life much simpler. I guess that is why they pay me the 'big' (snort) bucks.

Eldest Spawn is still out of a job, which is a severe financial drain but convenient in that she is available to carpool the Youngest Spawn into school and various appointments.

Middle Spawn is still staying with the Boy at his place, but storing the vast majority of her stuff at our place. She is still in school as well and once again employed, this time as a barista at Tullys. The Boy is also working once again since his deployment got canceled. He's following his path in Personal Training at one of the gyms (I think 24 Hour Fitness) along with finishing up his schooling.

Youngest Spawn is back in school and looking at maybe Sign Language Interpreter as a job she could do. Pretty freaking cool.

Herbalicious is now on nightly insulin and is still working the mojo to get and keep the blood sugars down. He's keeping mucho busy with the geneology and the occasional article in the Witches Almanack.

The cats are still cats.

Okay, more meepling, sorry about that....
It's only become more clear as I get older how much I hate the state of California..... I think it has some pretty areas, I've got family and friends who all still live there, but the politics and policies of the state stink to high heaven.

When mom passed on this year, she had an annuity that was being dribbled out to help pay for her various medical and living expenses. Not that it was much mind you, and combined with the SS pittance it almost covered her monthly expenses. Now that she is gone, the state of California is attempting to sue my sister for 45000.00 that they claim is for medical expenses since 1986 (I believe, Sister Spawn is/was the medical POA for mom). Except that she wasn't disabled until somewhere @ 1990-93, so she doesn't have expenses from that time period, and most of what she had afterwards she paid out of pocket until 2000.

She's not the first that this has happened to, and she probably won't be the last but it still burns me.

End Meepling, I promise.

Now on to b*tching and moaning (grin) have you ever read someone online that you just wanted to reach out and slap the crap out of?

Me too. But instead I've been reading the reviews of the author's short story and finding that the world of writing falls into two categories, those who speak well even when disagreeing and those who are imbicelic twits who cannot be bothered to spell check or verify a fact before venting their spleen.

I think I will go dig out my copy of The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense and reread it.
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Aug. 7th, 2008 @ 07:27 am Where or where has my summertime gone?
location: home, heading for work
Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Zelda therme on the Wii

We celebrated Lammas last weekend just in time for cool temps and rain. It felt more like the last harvest rather than a celebration of the first harvest.

I feel fall in the air already, but cannot get a grip on what the winter is going to be like and it worries me. This week with its heat and unrelenting heavy air only makes me think of the last gasp of summer, not of the dog days.

For me the quality of light has changed enough to make me believe that fall is already here in my corner of the Pacific Northwest.
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