Run! It's a moose!

I had no jewelry class this week, as it's spring break. So what do I do in the evenings that I have free? Work out? Clean the apartment? Broker world peace?

...no. I come home, lie down on the couch, and fall asleep*. I wake up after about an hour and a half, get dinner, read my email, and go to bed. Tonight has been the first night this week that I haven't felt the need. (Though that may change.)

So this weekend, the first I've spent home in while, means I have plans. I'm getting the hair cut on Saturday, I have to vacuum and clean the place (sorry, cats), and haul some more stuff to Goodwill/Half Price books.

* To be fair, I started the week with a bad sleep deficit: I didn't get home from SXSWi selling shirts until 8:30 pm Sunday, and then I had to do laundry... Monday I was a zombie.

And Threadless is having another sale!

Threadless is having a 3-Day sale through Wednesday.

Spotted in Austin: A Zombie Warning Sign.

Slinky the Lumpen Sidekick Cat does not approve of my furniture rearranging. He kept coming into the living room to tell me, and then flouncing out. He did not appreciate my giggles.

Ripley the Wonder Cat loves the new! open! spaces! and has been playing with all the toys that had been stowed under the furniture.

I now have piles of stuff I need to do something with.

Ah, well, back to work.

I won an iPod Shuffle!

We're having our Employee Appreciation week; yesterday was the Health & Wellness Fair. I entered all the drawings, as you do, and this morning I had an email that I'd won a Shuffle! w00t!

(That brings me up to 3 iPods: my original 20Gb, which I never use any more and really should sell*; my wonderful Amusement Machine, the 160Gb video; and now the Shuffle. *boggles*)

And our company just got named to Fortune's '100 Best Companies to Work For' list for the 10th year in a row.

Amazon's Gold Box Deal today is the entire run of The Wire for $81.99.



* Anyone want to buy a 20GB iPod with a dock and unused earbuds?

The State of Texas actually did something right for once. During the Tech Bust of 2000-2001 (oh how innocent we were then), they hired a bunch of coders and web developers and turned them loose on the tax collection website for the state. The result? I paid my sales taxes for the year in under 15 minutes, a chunk of which was spent calculating my total sales for the year.

*Is pleased.*

Looks like I don't have any jewelry shows until April or May. Depends on if the Violet Crown folks decide to do a spring show or not. I did discover that the Starving Artists Show I used to do in San Antonio has been replaced with a $200-a-booth "fine arts" show. Juried with Zapplication, which means I'd need much higher-resolution photos of my work than I do now. And pay a fee. Um, no. New show in this economy? Sorry, not doing it.

In the meantime, I'll be taking a chasing and repoussage class. I'm looking for good line art of a trilobite or dinosaur bones....

People keep telling me I should sell at Wiscon. Anyone out there gone to Wiscon?

You know where I want to go? (With money, of course.) Tuscon. In February. Maybe I'll be able to do it in a couple of years.

Heh. On the money front--about a month ago, one of my 2 remaining credit cards informed me that they were rate-jacking me. I called my credit union and explained what was going on and had the loan to pay the suckers off in about 10 minutes. So, instead of them getting my money for another couple of years, they don't. And if I have anything to say about it, Citi will never get my money ever again. So now I'm down to 1 credit card. Which I really want to get paid off ASAP. (We'll see if the car, etc. cooperates.)

Oh! Oh! My brother scored me a "new" dryer. Even brought it over and helped me install it. The old one is on the porch (until I'm sure the new one works OK). If everything is OK, I'll just borrow his truck and haul the old one down the street to Goodwill. Let them deal with the drama.

It was over 70F today, and humid. Tonight it's supposed to get to freezing, and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 40's. I'm staying in and making cookies on Sunday.

I mailed off the last of the Christmas presents today. I hope I sent everyone their cards!

Then I did a Bad Thing--I went to Central Market without a list, and without eating first. I did buy only things I knew I would eat...I'm cooking my lovely small steak, and having a good red wine tonight. Mmmmm.

And, a meme!

Your result for The What type of MAN turns you on Test...

Action movie star

You scored 80% masculine, 59% athletic, 73% exotic, and 56% refined!

Take The What type of MAN turns you on Test at HelloQuizzy

...yeah, not much of a shocker.

The apartment is still a mess. I have conquered approximately 5% of it.

I killed my watch. I had some plastic bags hung over my forearm, and one of the handles got wrapped around the little knob on the side and pulled it right out. In the parking lot. In the dark. Oh, well, I asked my sister-in-law for one for Christmas. Though Swatch has some nice ones on sale...I'm just gonna feel naked without one on my wrist.

When I left for work this morning it was 78F. The front --a real blue norther--came in earlier than they thought it would. By the time I left the office it was 42. With a 20-30 mph wind.* It's now raining off and on and just below freezing. But never fear! By the weekend it will be in the upper 60's again. (However, it can keep raining just as long as it wants to. We really need it.)

Man, I love South Texas in the winter. Gives a whole new meaning to "bipolar".

I have been watching Leverage and loving it. Go watch it!


* I, of course, went to work in a t-shirt and capri pants. I still ran errands after work--I just kept moving and it wasn't too bad. I may dislike the cold, but I am almost perfectly physically adapted to it.

I used Baker's Secret on the pan, and the recipe I used baked up fine. I forgot that you really need to depan within 10 minutes, but I'm not sure that had anything to do with the slight sticking problem I had. I got about 80% of the cake out in 1 piece, and the rest in 3-4 pieces. It looks OK, and I should be able to disguise cracks with berries and sugar. The only time the damn thing came out perfectly was the first time I used the pan--I know now that it was taunting me.

I bought a Very Large Turkey (aka the Rock) tonight, along with stuff for my share of the sides. L and J and J's mother and I are doing Thanksgiving, and we decided to have a turkey big enough for leftovers for 4 people. Luckily my brother has a chest freezer and said I can store the Rock (and the green beans) until it's time to thaw.

...and it looks like my sister (and her husband) will be able to go with my brother and his family to Alabama for the Big Family Get-Together. I can't--it's too hard for me to get Wednesday off. I hope this helps her get her head together. She got her second DWI a few weeks ago, and I really hope it's finally scared her completely straight. She's going to counseling and seems to be serious about quitting drinking. I really really hope it sticks this time. They need to leave that craphole of a town they're in and get a fresh start somewhere else. *sigh*

Got the car's new passenger side rear view mirror installed this weekend. I'm ordering new motor mounts today, since the bonus check came through. Yay! I'm also now seriously contemplating a new (used) washer and dryer, as the dryer works when it wants to and the washer has a tendency to dribble water into the tub. Then I may just throw caution to the winds and buy an iced tea maker. Whoo hoo!

I'll be selling t-shirts at Millennium Con this weekend; a gaming/wargaming convention here in Austin. I have an email in to the Vendor Coordinator, since the website lists the Saturday hours as 8am to 9pm! Which is just crazy. But it's extra cash, which will come in handy (see car and appliances above). I'm whipping up some dice-related earrings and more dice necklaces for it, just for fun. But if the hours are really that long, there had better be free wifi in that Dealer's Room, or things could get ugly.

Finally received feedback on my presentation at work. One said it was "refreshingly short", another that it was "too short". But it got positive feedback overall, which was nice. If I do one at all next year, it will be as part of a team.

Did you know that RediWhip makes chocolate whipped cream? It's, um, pretty good...I haven't tried it on my Scharffen Berger hot chocolate yet, but I may later on in the week, if it cools down enough. (Seriously, this makes great hot or cold chocolate. It's amazing.)

Got up and out earlier than I had originally planned--I was going to print up some quickie Wheatsville flyers to pass out, but my frickin' printer ran out of black ink. So I loaded everything onto my memory stick and went to the 24-hour Kinkos that's on the way to Fiesta Gardens. Wound up printing too many, in retrospect, but I'd rather have too many than not enough.

Saw an absolute TON of folks I had not seen in literally years--Brenda from my time at SJG, Eric and Lisa, the Hackenburgs....seemed like every 10 minutes I was getting up and squealing someone's name.

Once again, vickita earned her angel's wings. This time she went and got me chocolate gelato. My love knows no bounds.

Best Band Heard: Still Jiggernaut!

Weather was very fine, if a little breezy early on. (Everything was very dusty by the end of the day, as it always is at ACF.) Sales were quite good; only about $15 off of Saturday's total, which is great for a Sunday.
 
I was amused to hear some vendors complaining about sales--frankly, the ones that complained the loudest were the ones with the most generic merchandise. You know, celtic knot earrings, generic silver jewelry, crappy imports, etc. I was one of a very few folks who actually made what they sold, and we all did pretty well. And I got a zillion compliments, most of which were sincere. My ego is fat and happy right now.

I resisted the impulse to buy A Certain Friend's Child a drum. Actually I resisted buying a drum for one child and a tin whistle for the other. I suspect even being separated by several states would not have saved me...

World's Best Niece and her friend came to help tear down and it was greatly appreciated! And I they both want to help out at Ikkicon. Yay!

I have Monday off. Laundry, groceries, cleaning. And the yearly duck-squeezing appointment. Awesome.

Ye gods, what a day.

The World's Best Niece had to move this weekend--seems that the crappy, crazy boyfriend she had from College Station has graduated into being a Crazy Stalker Ex-Boyfriend, complete with calling her so often she had to change her number, filing false police reports, etc. She now has a very slick Taser. And, as of this afternoon, a new apartment, one with an attached garage so she can park her car and go inside in peace.

She's 21. Welcome to the party, sister.

And her mother, who should totally know better, was getting on her ass about the new place. It was "too small" and her brother's room was "really tiny". I didn't say anything, because WBN is very good at giving more than she gets in those situations. I love my sister-in-law, but she tries too hard to live in a world of fuzzy puppies and kittens and white picket fences. To the point where she willfully Will Not Get It, sometimes. Yes, it cost a lot of money to break the lease and move your daughter. Would you rather have saved it and had her attacked? *facepalm*

To add to the stress, The Nephew a) had not packed anything and b) had stayed out all night at his girlfriend's place. He showed up about 11 and was forcibly detained by his parents--he was all ready to just breeze in and leave to work a double shift. Didn't happen. (Insert rant here about parents who have let his behavior slide for 18 years...)

We finally got everything moved by 2. For all that my brother is a Heap-Big-Wig Naval Officer, he is terrible about organizing this kind of stuff. He just didn't do enough moving in college, I guess. This tiny move? Should have happened in about 3 hours, tops. Too much flailing, too much drama, not enough warm bodies. I told her to call me first, the next time she has to move.

Then I had to run all the errands I was going to run early in the day, before the Longhorns Game Day craziness started. Got my hair cut, picked up a car part waaay out in Del Valle, finally found (hopefully) an acceptable present for my brother's birthday. Found the last of the beads I need for the lanyards I owe to the Sweet Charity auction. Got the Brobdingnagian Bards new live CD, Death to Unicorns, With Laughter. Will post it if anyone wants it.

However, I have now had a slice of Hyde Park Fudge Cake and am contemplating pizza. Going to MakerFaire tomorrow (free tickets, yay).