Run! It's a moose!

 I've now seen Endgame. All I can say is they did a great job of wrapping up loose ends in a way that was 90% satisfying. As seperis ' Child remarked afterwards, "DC is cumulatively losing it's shit right now."

So, when y'all have seen it and digested it, I want ALL THE FICS.

Right now I want Hawkeye fics. And Ant-Man. Any good recs?

 (taps mic) Is this thing on?

So... it's been a minute, hasn't it? 

Huh, let's see. I got let go from my job at the end of September 2016. Finally got another full time job right after my birthday in July of this year. However, I have the BEST FRIENDS IN ALL THE UNIVERSE and I was able to get some temp gigs, so I came through pretty well. I got a refi on my house so I finally have a French drain next to the workshop which so far has kept the workshop dry, a new back door, and a few other things that needed taking care of sorted.

Spencer the Cat disappeared on me October 25th, 2017. He went out and never came back. (No comments about indoor/outdoor cats, please. I'm well aware of the statistics, but he was completely out of control unless he got to go outside for a large part of the day.) Ripley has been absolutely thrilled to be an only cat, so I'm holding off becoming a Cat Lady until after she passes away. Which will be a while, she may be 14 1/2 but the vet says she's one of the healthiest cats she's ever seen, LOL.

I've been harassing seperis a lot; making her feed me and harassing her, Child, and the bunnies.

Christmas was pretty good. Excellent present-wise, but I had to spend 3 days dealing with in laws and future in laws (my brother is getting married again, OH JOY), plus I had a funeral on Saturday. By Christmas Day, I noped out of any further celebrations, slept late, and went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. Go see it!

While I am making great strides (LOL) in my knee recovery, I've reached the stage where my brain is tired of TV and reading and keeps telling me that I Need To Be Productive, Damnit. So I went on an errand--just a quick run to the pharmacy, the Asian grocery in the same strip center (frozen dumplings!), and the Post Office.

Spent the rest of the day on the couch, under the ceiling fan, with my cold pack on my leg. Ugh.

What killed me was standing in line at the Post Office though I wasn't in line for very long. Standing still for any length of time is...annoying. Plus it's hovering around 90F during the day with high humidity and a lot of haze coming up from Mexico where they're burning fields.

On Sunday I somehow managed to completely lose my main key chain--it had my house keys (unlabeled) and my Mazda car key/fob. Guess who couldn't find her spare car key, even after tearing apart the house and having a friend come over and look? So I used AAA to get the car towed--luckily I had left it unlocked after my last trip--and took it to the dealer. Thank goodness for an upgraded membership; at least the tow was free.

A couple of hours later, I had two shiny key fob/keys. They only cost the equivalent of TWO car payments and at least one water bill. 

And on Monday I had to have the appliance repair dude come out and work on the fridge.

However, I continue to astonish my home PT person. I have figured out how to not only clean the cat box, but how to move the big trash cans to and from the curb. (Her comment, "Now you're just showing off.") She's releasing me to outpatient PT next week.

How are YOU doin'?

 Ugh, I suck at LJ nowadays. I'm mainly on FB and tumblr but I miss the conversations, you know?

 Um hey...been a while.

I'm mainly on tumblr..https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bylillian

So, I'm 51 today. Not feeling it--I've been kind of down lately, thinking about my sister who died just about 2 years ago. Now all I have as a direct relation is by brother, and we don't communicate. 

ANYWAY. I've had some very good shows. SoonerCon was good and shows signs of being one of those cons that will get better the more often I am there. I have ArmadilloCon in a couple of weeks, and I do pretty well there too. I keep being asked to do one day pop up shows outdoors and I'm all NOPE. No more outdoor shows until the fall.

Spencer Cat got into something last night. I've been letting him out in the evenings; he usually runs around for a bit and then just lounges on top of my car. Last night he was coughing a little and today I can see scratches on his head and ears. He's kind of grumpily curled up in the smaller cat bed, but he did eat last night and he did come out to supervise the AC guy this morning. So I'll keep an eye on him.

Work is...work. I'm starting to sniff around in the job market, since I don't have a hope in hell of advancing much here and I'm really bored with the actual job. I've been here 15 years though, hard to break that habit.

Going to see Minions tonight with J & L. Will celebrate with the family after the World's Best Niece and Her Fabulous Finace (they're getting married next year!) come back from Comic Con. I am soooo jealous. I need to go back next year.

Argh1: What I thought was a strained muscle in my left shin is, in fact, stress fractures. WTH? All I can figure is they started last year when I was working with my trainer (I had similar symptoms though they were gone pretty quickly), and I somehow did something at the show last Sunday to exacerbate the problem. I'm seeing my PT on Monday, at least I will have a course of action.

NON-ARGH 1: The World's Best Niece is now engaged! I really like J, he's smart and funny and a huge nerd and he respects her.

Arrgh 2: Have been informed by my home financer that my payment will be going up almost $100/month. I'm calling them on Monday to find out what the problem is. I JUST got my tax notice in the mail yesterday and I plan on contesting the 25% increase in listed value, so they have no call to increase my escrow...$100/month is a LOT of money to me right now, and I'd really rather not have to count every single penny in order to save a multinational corporation...$650.

NON-ARGH 2: Said Fiance, (now known as the World's Best Fiance), climbed up in my attic yesterday to check on some things for me because I Simply Do Not Bend That Way Anymore, Thank You. Good news, all my worries are merely cosmetic and resulted from the previous owner's DIY work cutting some corners.

Arrrgh 3: Car is hesitating upon acceleration again, AFTER I spent $300 to get the coil/plugs/plug wires replaced. Hopefully this is an easy fix.

NON-ARGH 3: I'm going to be on Amazon Marketplace! One of their handmade market recruiters saw my work at the Flea last month and I'm in the process of getting branded and my work certified handmade. I'm starting with my bowls and such since it takes so long to get jewelry certified, due to the sheer amount of fake "handmade" work out there. I will, of course, keep you posted.

Arrrrgh 4: Because of the stress fractures, I can'd do the Vortex show this coming weekend, and I'm hesitating about working in the workshop, because it involves a lot of getting up/down from my chair, which I think is what set them off.

NON-ARGH 4: My tax refund (thank you, home office deduction!) AND my "extra" paycheck showed up last week, so I was able to get the trees trimmed back and the yard mowed, buy jewelry supplies,  and pay entry fees into a couple of shows, including SoonerCon.

 Agent Carter is over. I really hope we get more, because I love Hayley Atwell and her kick-em-in-the-balls fighting style.

Person of Interest continues to be some of the best, creepiest near-future SF on television. The episode "If-Then-Else" NEEDS to be nominated for a Hugo next year.

I'm so sad this is Justified's last season. I'm clinging to every episode. I frequently yell at the screen. "Don't you threaten Ava! Boyd's going to go nuclear on your ass!" has crossed my lips more than once.

I've completely given up on Dr Who. I like me some Peter Capaldi, but damn, Moffett's writing makes me want to hiss and throw things. ("We'll always have Nine", I whisper mournfully to the cat.)

Constantine was very, very good, and I do hope it's picked up by a cable channel.

The Flash continues to make me smile. It tries so hard to do angst, but it's just not built for it. It has even made Arrow bearable.

Supernatural keeps hitting it out of the park. I'm going to miss it when they finally end it; hopefully they'll do it before it starts sucking.

Jupiter Ascending is tons of fun and very silly and very pretty. Go see it.

Why hasn't anyone made a multifandom vid to "Shoop" by Salt'n'Pepa?

Hey, yeah - I wanna shoop, baby

(Oooo, how you doin', baby?
No, not you
You, the bow-legged one, (ha-ha) yeah
What's your name?
Damn, that sounds sexy)

C'mon, an opening shot of Dean in the gym shorts?...

 I did hear from the oncologist last Friday, as I was frantically trying to get one of my "Project Goals" done at work--i.e., Projects You Take On To Look Good When They Decide Raises.

He says he's extremely sure I don't have a tumor--the T-cells were reacting as if they were fighting a local infection/inflammation. He was hoping to hear from the pathologist this week; but I have an appointment with him the week after next and he'll give me the details.

I'm...relieved? No longer anxious? The most noticeable effect is on my creativity--January was a black hole of suck but I'm back in the workshop again. I actually cooked for the first time in weeks (as opposed to heating up frozen things). I borrowed a ladder to finally get up in the attic and poke around.

Though my brain continues to be weird. I JUST NOW NOTICED that my first show of the year is on this Sunday, not Saturday. Which is good! I can get some more earrings made with my new blanks and maybe make a quick run to the farmer's market.

I'm heading to Denver over the weekend of the 13th for Genghis Con, flogging shirts for Mr. Pegasus. I'm supposed to hear from a couple of conventions this weekend--WhoFest says I'm in (but I have yet to see an invoice), and Soonercon. I hope I do get into Soonercon--I'm told it's a nice large fan convention and I tend to do well at those. Plus I have friends to stay with. ArmadilloCon still doesn't have a Guest of Honor, and they aren't getting my money for a table until they do.

That's all for now. :-)

I've come to the realization that the amount of stress in my life may be just a tad high. 

Tuesday, I think I had a genuine panic attack.

I checked my bank balance after the long weekend (well, long for those who get federal bank holidays off), tried to subtract my mortgage payment, and the resulting large negative number almost made me faint. I went into overdrive: I immediately moved my tiny savings into my checking account, remembered my hoarded $100 bill from Christmas in my wallet, and begged a $200 loan from a coworker. I drove over to the credit union, slammed the money into the account. and was driving back, calculating how much food I had in the house....

....when my actual fore brain kicked in and gently reminded me that I had, in fact, paid the mortgage 2 weeks ago, right on schedule. I had made arrangements to pay my sales taxes out of this paycheck, along with covering some show fees, some supplies, and maybe some computer "reading" glasses. (Yes, I need "readers". I hate getting old.) Everything was fine, and what the hell was all the yelling about?

So, I went back to work, apologized to and thanked my friend; promised her I'd have her cash back in the morning, Then I spent the rest of the afternoon shaking and weird.

That evening my gynecologist called. She'd been having a hard time getting a specialist to look at my results. The cells were "atypical", and she wasn't totally convinced that it was just a lymph node flare-up. So, I'm seeing her specialist, an oncologist, on Monday, and he's going to go over my options. He seems to think that the lab wasn't rigorous enough in their cell testing. I have no idea what to expect.

I had lunch with dremiel  on Wednesday, which helped quite a bit.

Today was rainy and cold and gross and I haven't been getting enough sleep (surprise!) and so I've been feeling really down. But bingeing on 5 episodes of "Galavant" have helped. Plus ice cream.

Just gotta get through until Monday afternoon. Wish me luck?

 Aaaarrrgh.

Just got a call from the Womens' Imaging Center where I had my appointment to get my needle biopsy. 

Seems an alert tech was going over her schedule for Monday and noticed that they shouldn't have scheduled my procedure at that location, because THEY DON'T HAVE THE EQUIPMENT THERE. (Because I'm not getting just a needle biopsy of my boob, it's my lymph node.)

So, they called to reschedule. For Wednesday. Much farther away. The scheduling person very kindly offered to make it Friday so I'd have a long weekend ("If you work". What. The. Actual. Fuck.) I rather tartly replied that I'd rather get this over with, thankyouverymuch.

So now I have an additional 48 hours to stew. I'm glad I'm not much of a drinker because I have a whole 6-pack of good cider in the fridge along with some excellent local mead.

And it's too cold to go out in the workshop.