Obsessed With Food

I made a deviantart account so I could post stuff like this there. I developed a few versions of the splash screen that I mentioned in yesterday's post. My personal faves are the bottom 2 - they look like a piece of a starship hull - but the product manager picked the second one with some minor adjustments (like adding the new official coporate logo, removing any text that would have to change with each build, and such)... Moving on to the next thing in the pile.

I chickened out and did "stitch in the ditch" around my huge solar medallion, with a spiral in the middle. Looks mostly OK, except for where I strayed off the path.  My left tricep aches like crazy from wrestling that quilt in my machine, but it's starting to look like a real quilt. 

I'm going to have to do another one for competition, though. this one has too many mistakes to be ribbon-worthy. But that's for later, after I teach myself some new piecing techniques (see my quilt blog for details).

I could be doing more work on that stupid proposal, but I was approved for 72 hours this week, and I hit that at 5PM today, and I am NOT doing work for free for them, dammit. And I was in the office today as well (along with the rest of the writing team and the VP - first time I saw him in jeans and sneakers - he was upset that he couldn't get the break room TV to show the hockey game)

Now for a luxurious soak in my new tub, and possibly a real massage on the massage table from R, and then SLEEP.

Because it all starts again tomorrow. The deadline is next monday, so there is an end to this madness.

Oh, yeah, one more thing... we bought Deadwood Seaon1 on my last day when I wasn't working (I think that was president's day), and we finally started watching it last night and tonight (the 2 days where I worked only 8hours in a day) It's really good, and we'll probably get the other seaon(s). I dont' mind not seeing it in first run, because now I don't have to wait between episodes.

It's snowing and there's a goodly amount outside, making all the bare trees very pretty, and damping the sound of the commuter trains and keeping most traffic off the road in front of my house. However, I still have to work, and I still have a book due this afternoon. I'd much rather be doing other things around the house, but money must be earned....

I've been downed by vertigo for the past couple of days. I saw the doctor this morning, and he prescribed meclazine, which seems to be a prescription version of Dramamine. I've taken my first dose and I'm waiting for it to kick in. The weather is beautiful outside, and I'm missing it because I can't drag myself out of bed.

There could not be a worse time for me to be incapaciated - there are huge amounts of work to do for my job, getting the proposal book prepped for printing, and then there are the host of costumes that also need to be completed. On top of that, the tomatoes and peppers need to be planted in the garden, and the English Ivy needs to be eradiated. There is not enough time this long weekend to do all these things - I will have to prioritize, and I think costumes take first dibs. I hope I'll be able to sit at the machine and handle scissors soon.

Vacation: A time when you are not working for The Man.  So why did the COO call me today and ask me to speak to someone about graphics? Well I do know why - the fellow is only here in the US until Saturday, and I don't come back to work until Monday, so there is a logistical issue. But I'm not meeting with him face-to-face, so why can't we do this over the phone with an ocean between us instead of a few highways?

I will be charging for this. At least I'm at home and not actually away anywhere. Then I would be really extremely irritated about the entire thing.

In other news, the strawberry ziggurat has now become the Large Strawberry Mound, since they don't seem to make the aluminum garden borders any more. We also picked up a more mature blueberry bush to accompany the young twiglets sent by the Burpee company. The planting will commence tomorrow.

 I also picked up some miniature pansies and some other flowers for the front yard. I'm envisioning a flower/herb garden there taking over the lawn at some point in the future.

The beans are doing quite well. The cukes don't really like being outside yet, but I'm hoping they'll recover since I relocated their portable greenhouse to a warmer spot. The peppers have just started sprouting indoors, and I probably have another week or so before I see any tomatoes peeping out from the starter cells.

The hen-and-chicks bromeliads I didn't manage to plant last year seem to have made a comeback in their flowerpot, which really impressed me, since I thought I totally killed them. I will have to find a spot of honor for these brave plants somewhere in the garden.

 I am also planning to take on the English Ivy that's choking out a lot of flowers and climing the trees and starting to make inroads into my garden.

The sewing machine is in the shop waiting for a tune up (while still under warranty). I won't see it till next week. Anyone want to take bets over whether or not I break out the old machine to keep sewing?

I'm rewatching Dead Like Me on DVD, having purchased the new(ish?) box set that includes a never-before aired DVD movie that may wrap up the series (which was yet another great series killed too soon), because it's been a few years since the first viewing, and I don't remember enough details to just jump in at the movie.

The series is quite excellent, and, as the main characters are "grim reapers", it deals a lot with death and dying. They work in the "accidental death" department, so we're not hanging out in hospitals, and most of the demises are ironic. The series also explores the parent/daughter relationship in detail and other major points of human existence (including funny observations about work life in an office).

I find that I can sit and watch 4 or 5 hour-long episodes at a clip, and that I want to do so. I am finding t he series to be very cathartic now, and that I tear up frequently. This is a good thing, I think. A necessary thing.

I also find myself being extremely tired this week. Daylight savings time did not help at all with this - it is pitch dark again at wake-up time and that's wreaking havoc with my internal clock (I'm much better waking at sunrise, or noon - even better!), nor is getting a visit from my good friend "Aunt Floe" who knocked me on my ass yesterday. I should have expected it - the moon is full after all. I am so ready for menopause, you have no idea (or maybe you do). A lot of it has to do with having to drag myself into work - it is becoming more and more a toxic environment. The new woman in my office is a very angry person (she has good reason to be, but still). They recently fired one of the engineers that we liked, and most people are wound really tight there, and there is a whole lot of tension and cursing and general malaise. That's not helping much either. I've managed to take myself out of the critical path for major projects - I get the last minute rush jobs that can be done in a few days, and "overflow work" - I'm a bit nervous about that, because, for example, I don't have anything specific to do tomorrow.

I wasn't able to talk to my boss about my "dream job conditions" before he left for an extended business trip - which would be a major reduction in hours under normal circumstances (like 20-24hrs/week) which would leave me time to find other clients and help my husband grow his business. We each are working for one client primarily, and that's a really dangerous place to be when you are running a business - you easily become their slave or wind up starving. I'm nervous to ask about the reduction in hours, because I'm afraid they' ll just replace me with another drone that wants to work 40hours/week.

I really don't mind indexing, but after 6 hours or so, it gets a bit tedious. I had a Framemaker plug-in that helps automate the process somewhat, but the license expired, and my boss is in the UAE until next month, so no action can be taken on getting that restored until february.

At least I'll have it back for the next book out the door. I hope I can get it done by the end of tomorrow, because I have too many other things on the work plate to spend more than 2 days on it.

and the following have happened in the last 36 hours:

• everyone in my writing department has had minor annoying computer problems (like docking stations that don't detect laptops that are in them, excessive boot times due to some corporate IT script that runs when the computer is booted that are taking extra long for some unknown reason)
• Our water heater stopped heating water (we suspect the thermocouple which is 1/4 the cost of a new heater, but still)
• I am losing the fight with the cold bacteria/virus that's taken up residence in my sinuses
• Even more stupid "emergencies" from managment
• Cell phone randomly connecting with my bluetooth headset when it's in my purse
• Work email acting up (not getting a mail, and then getting 3 copies of it)

Mercury officially goes retrograde on Sunday for 3 or 4 weeks. It's "at station" now. I suggest backups ASAP.

And will someone please turn off the Deadline Detector?

is that they don't have fingers! Brr!

( rambling and updateyness )