Friday, December 30, 2011

Anti-Gravity

Just a few pictures of the venue we decked out for our Space themed all night party on the 26th.
I snapped a few right before the doors opened.









It was a BLAST. We sold out and everyone had a fantastic time. It was a lot of work to set up and tear down but we had 2 rooms of fantastic music of many genres, plus local art, cookies, giant robots and a space chicken.

Anti-Gravity was a great success. All bills are paid and there were many MANY happy people including yours truly.

And now *I* get to relax after cleaning all that up and running a zillion errands
:)
I do believe it is FINALLY time for more mulled wine and a good book.

Happy New Year everyone!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I know my chicken. You've got to know your chicken.


My poor old laptop. Something is up with the battery connection - when it is less than 1 hour of charge it will discharge all remaining juice and shut down. Poor little bean. I was in a contented posting mood last night about midnight, but the bean decided to shut down middle babble, so the moment passed. Still, I want to keep that feeling I had around for a while. Contented cookie glow is a very good feeling.

Thing is, last night I felt human. Like Me. Despite a busy day, running errands for the party (I can carry 30 dozen beer - rawr amazon), working on my space chicken, baking a zillion sour cream sugar cookies for the party (star shaped "space cakes") and hanging out a bit with a friend decorating robots for a while. It is so mindpolishingly good to know that when I stop working on my thesis and take time to relax and live in the moment there are moments to have. There is life to be had. Things to do. I have baked and sewn a few things and feel a lot more like me than I did a few weeks ago. It's still a busy time but it's a different busy right now.
I'll take it. I'll take 2.

I have taken the giant paper mache chicken and repainted it all bright yellow with an orange beak and tonight and tomorrow I need to make him a spaceship and spacesuit. I have it in my head to make a giant space chicken for the party. I just cannot bear to let such a lovely giant absurdly yellow chicken go to waste :)
I mean come on - giant space chicken.
Does the thought of it not make you wibble with glee?
Cuz it should...

Phew. Two more days of work left until 10 days off..
Giggedy.


Monday, December 19, 2011

I'm digging this management thing

If this weekend is a sign of what being in my new job is like, I am one happy camper...

My new boss threw a christmas thing, where there was much good wine, and fantastic cheese and nibbles. I hardly knew anyone there, but showed up to friendly groups of people and had a wonderful time. I was all nervous, as J couldn't come so it was just me, in the house of the king...and I needn't have worried. It was great. I work with some really nice people...

Did I mention the cheese?
Cuz there were 10 kinds.
Whole wheel of smoked gouda. Gruyere stuffed mushroom caps....and some choice Pino Grigio.

WAHOO!


Friday, December 16, 2011

Stop! Hippy time!

Dooo do doodoooo...

The thing about some of my friends being hippies is that while they are great and calm and zen about most things it is bloody impossible to plan events with them, particularly around the holidays. Case in point: I was told the major setup for our party would be on a certain day, which has since switched, so I have to try and replan holiday stuff with my brother. I don't have a yearning to spend lots of time with them, but one evening helping them make ebelskeivers and playing games was something I was really looking forward to. Even if J can't come it may happen anyways, hippies be damned...I mean my sis-in-law just had major surgery I am not breezing in, stuffing my face with pancakes and leaving right away like some self important jerk. I want to at least hang out with my brother for a few hours and maybe play some Catan with a glass or 2 of wine...doesn't seem like too much to ask. It's a challenge to get J over there and put up with my sis-in-law, so the wine helps :)

Grrrr.

All I want for Christmas is to hang out in my house with some rum and nog and not have to do anything or be anywhere. I am hoping the week after christmas will be less insane, but I am not sure. J doesn't have that week off and has to plan a new year's special. I have time off. We shall see...there may be sabotage required to get myself the break I crave...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

WANT!!

Robot tea infusers.

Need.

One.

out of stock.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....................

Saturday, December 10, 2011

better. yes.

OK...sorry for all the moping. It's really been a spectacularly sucky week...but slowly its all settling. It is what it is and life goes on. Things are starting to trickle back together...
A little bit of sleep and some coffee and I feel a bit more on the level now. Plus, my throat finally doesn't hurt anymore from when I burned it. It's nice to have some tea and coffee again. Perhaps I will try crunchy foods today. Oh to dream :)

Today I get to relax...finished off some inventory data entry leftover from work this morning and now I can get ready for a haircut and drop off tickets to a sponsor to sell for us. Our local group of crazies are throwing another party. Last time we sold out and it went well, so we're hoping this time it will be the same...this time it's space themed - called Anti-gravity. We're having fun with it - if you dress up like a robot you get a free drink. Free admission with a life-sized robot. We've lined up lots of good local bands and DJs in a venue with multiple rooms and are going to decorate the place up. I'm in charge of the bar and have a few good space themed drinks...should be fun. I am also building a giant astronaut chicken in a space ship for decor...the world needs more space chickens. I finally have a bit of free brain space to start getting excited about it. Hope it goes well...tomorrow is a massive decor session at our house to build robots for the party...so much tin foil...

Tonight I get to hang with my friend Heather who I haven't seen since Comic Con this summer. Ridiculous I know. See works in a lab up north and so she isn't home much and I've been a hermit...so except for email and texts we haven't talked in months and months...it will be good to catch up on everything and just relax and talk to someone about things that do not involve grad school, work or taxes. I really should start on my thesis before christmas...but that is next week. Not now. A little more normality is required...

I hope you all have a nice weekend. I'm going to stare at the tree a lot...drink some cocoa. Let life settle into it's new mode.

Friday, December 09, 2011

boo

I had grand plans for some $$ I'd earned.
J did too.
It is all going to the government now.
And more.
Time to decide what part of next summer won't happen...
Boo.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Ow

If you ever thought it might be fun to swallow boiling hot food, don't.
Last night, after a long miserable evening I warmed up some baked oatmeal to eat and took a big mouthful to discover it was too hot. I have a retarded swallow reflex and instead of spitting it out like a normal person, my lovely brain decided to swallow the burning hot food...and it burned all the way down, getting stuck in my throat as only oatmeal can do. I had a cold drink but couldn't eat after that. It hurt.
This am it's still sore, but at least I can eat again, albeit carefully. Managed some lukewarm coffee too... we're going out for a tasty christmas work lunch so I'm hoping my throat won't hassle me and I can enjoy my meal.

Sucky end to a sucky day.

meh.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

And *that's* how we do it around here :)


YES!!!

Permission has been granted!

A bit of a lacklustre event after all the hard work going into it to to be perfectly honest with you. A few phone meetings for consults and a LOT of writing are now my future...but my research work is declared done and I now get to officially write it up in thesis form, in it's approved, outlined form, for review and defence.

The relaxing sigh I just breathed out can be heard for miles I'm sure :)

The day I've been counting down to.

Well here goes nothing. I feel like there should be more fanfare somehow after all the work I've put in up to this point...In an hour I present my work to my committee and hope I get permission to write.
I have cookies for bribery...nutella cookies and pepper gingersnaps.
They are delish. Not as cake as I like my cookies, but they aren't for me :)

I must dash and try not to spill coffee all over myself before the meeting.
I do hope they all agree with me that I'm done all my work and I can start officially writing up my data. *I* think I am...but what do I know :)

Here we go...

Cunning Plans

 Life is wierd ya know. It seems a lot of things have been hitting me hard lately. Been distant from people, including my partner who is dea...