Tempus Fugit - No Doubt About It

Where did the weekend go? Of course, I worked on Saturday as usual, so I know where that part of the weekend went, but Sunday? It was a relaxing day, I know I did a little computer work, a load of laundry, and had a glass of lovely Port, and we ended the day by watching our next episode of "Vera", but the day just slipped by quietly, without fanfare or celebration. 

Sunday was a relaxing day and I really needed that. Now, 
however, it's time to dive back into the work week. *sigh*

I still don't have a land line phone, of course. If they come by today, we won't know it because we're both at work today. But, I'm not expecting miracles any more *sigh*. We're on today's schedule, so we'll see. I've watched that song and dance routine before and it wasn't all that good. 

It's time to renew my LiveJournal account. Last 
year they didn't accept my credit card. I'll have 
to see whether that will be the same this time. 

Speaking of song and dance, it's time for me to renew my LiveJournal account. I don't really know why I bother - last year they never were able to run through my credit card, and I'm still using it daily. But, I'm an honest person and I use the service daily (I have several friends on LJ who didn't move over to Dreamwidth in the "great evacuation", and I love to keep in touch with them). I'd rather not lose track or contact with some very dear friends of many years, so I'll renew - or at least make the attempt do to so. 

DH has a lot on his mind. He's stressing out about getting 
the store closed down and the timeframe within which I 
need that to happen. Of course, what he's working on right 
now could have been done five years ago, if he had only 
motivated at that time. *sigh*

DH couldn't sleep last night - apparently he was up at 1:00 am. He came down to find me when I was making my morning tea at around 4:15 am, and I sent him back up to bed again to try and get some sleep. He'll be totally useless to me today if he doesn't get a few hours. So, hopefully he's trying - I know that can be hard with a million thoughts running through one's brain - "what if..." "what then..." etc. 

The "What if?" thoughts running through our heads are 
often the things that keep us from sleep. It's really 
hard to push those thoughts aside. 

So, I think I'll make my breakfast and another cup of tea, then head out and go to the shop. We did get some snow on Saturday and Sunday, but it wasn't much - an inch or two - and it will be melted soon. It's that time of the year when the skeletons of our trees are starting to look fuzzy or furry with the promise of Spring's new leaves. Our migrating birds are starting to re-appear, birds in general are calling out for a mate, and my yard will be filled with flying critters soon. I'm really hoping for a good year for my hummingbirds as well as my Cooper's hawks. The hawks have been harmed by the bird flu which is quite prevalent in my area, so I'm hoping my pair are doing well and will return again. 

Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Housecleaning, Groceries and Other Errands - A Busy "Day Off" Yet Again

Today it's bathroom day. Cleaning, that is! I've been cleaning the shower daily for several weeks now so I don't have to bother with that. But I want to scrub the sinks and floors and give the walls a swipe or two. I might even break down and wash the drapes ... or not. LOL I'll have to see how my time is going before committing to the drapes. 

I would get a professional out to handle my livingroom 
draperies, but I'm just thinking about washing the 
drapes for the bathrooms, and those are small and 
much easier to handle. Then again, it might not be worth 
the trouble - LOL. 

Of course I also have to go grocery shopping, and make my next four portions of "Ogre Juice" so that I'm set up. Maybe I'll find something wonderful for lunch. I usually do sushi on Wednesdays, so I'm not going to do that, but there might be something interesting. Otherwise, I have things in the refrigerator and the pantry that will do just fine. 

It does seem that washing things is primary when 
I'm doing housecleaning. I suppose that's understandable. 
It's followed quickly by vacuuming and washing the 
floors. Rather standard cleaning, all things considered. 
You should see me with a duster, however. It's a 
beautiful ballet when I'm stretching up to my 12-foot high 
ceilings to get the top of the frames on various 
pictures. 

DH needs a new pill container, a small one "Don't spend more than $5". Walgreens usually has some available for cheap, so I'll drop by there this morning since it's right across the street from my grocer. I might drop by Whole Foods one more time. They've been out of the bread that I love for the past 2-3 weeks (apparently it's a problem from the bakery). I tried a different brand, but ICK! It was like eating dry sandpaper, but without the interesting texture sandpaper would have. No, nope and nein. Not going to repeat that experiment. I also need a tea that I'm almost out of, but I'll climb on a step stool and make sure I don't have one in my overstock beforehand. 

I do love Republic of Tea blends. I use the Burnout Blocker 
almost every morning. I haven't tried the Blueberry 
Lavender, but it sounds like something I'd enjoy. 

Basically, today will be a home day, and that's not a bad thing. Oh! I've been using my Osotek now at the shop, getting a little more of my hardwood flooring cleaned early in the mornings. It's working like a charm, now that I've figured out the in's and out's of operating it. I think I really love it, and I'm already looking forward to using it in my kitchen, entry way and bathrooms at my home after I've shut down the shop. I'm quite sure DH will give me grief about "another toy", but he's not the person who cleans the house, so I make those decisions on my own. Besides, it was my own money, so he really won't have much of a rock to stand on. 

I've been using my Osotek at the shop for 
a few days now and I love it. It'll take some 
serious time on our floors before they're 
actually clean, but I'm definitely 
accomplishing something, using it every 
day now. I have a lot of floor area, and they're 
pretty scuzzy, so it'll take me a month or 
more before I'll be happy with just going 
over the floors lightly. 

I'm out of here. Once again I'll fight to get into a routine with the new posting method for LJ. Once I figure out a method that works for me, I'll be ready to go. Right now, LJ is taking more time than I want to devote to my morning posts, and I need to discover a way to streamline my posting. Have an excellent Friday and Slava Ukraini. 

Things Are Moving Along - Live Journal, Dreamwidth, and My Tattoo Artist

It's the beginning of another week. After a relaxing Sunday, it's time to jump back onto the wheel, enter the flow, and resume the rhythm. Bleh! I really can't complain too much. The weather is tolerable - not snowing, not sub-zero and not rainy. I actually had a really good run this morning on the treadmill and my weight is right where I want it, and I've got food in my refrigerator and money in the bank. So I have no idea why I'm feeling "Bleh!" this morning ... but I am. 

Rodney is moving from Timeless Tattoo to 
Dinkytown Tattoo, approximately a mile 
away. This will be the third location for Rodney 
since I first contacted him before Covid. I liked 
the Timeless location, but I'll find him in Dinkytown. 

My tattoo artist, Rodney, is moving to a different shop over the next two weeks. It's only about a mile away, but he'll be closer to the University of Minnesota, and parking will be metered - not my favorite thing, but manageable. We're still trying to get together for that photo shoot, and I really want to find out his ideas for adding more color to my tattoo. If I do that, however, I'm looking at October. I want to be able to swim outdoors for the summer. If I have to take two weeks away from the pool for new ink to heal, I want it to be when I'm using the indoor pool only. 

This is Rodney, my tattoo artist. It's from a few years 
ago, but it was the first major search I made for an 
artist comfortable with skull tattoos. He's done very 
well for himself - even featured in INK magazine 
for his skull work. He deserves the accolades, my 
winged scarab is awesome and gets compliments 
every time people see it. 

But I'll never know about whether or not I want to add anything else to my Winged Scarab unless Rodney and I can actually manage to meet. He's extremely popular and well known in tattoo circles, so he's hard to pin down. The one time we had managed to mutually schedule a time late last year, his car broke down and he had to cancel. Still, getting together is something both of us want, so it will happen sometime or other, and my tattoo isn't going anywhere. 

I haven't bothered importing my LiveJournal to 
Dreamwidth since I cross post anyway, but there 
are early posts on Live Journal that I probably should 
move over. I have my Live Journal completely 
backed up, and all photos are on my computer, not 
permanently stored on either blogging platform, 
but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do 
a general import. 

A lot of my writing friends are now getting used to the Dreamwidth platform. I admit, I've used both Dreamwidth and Live Journal for years, and there are some differences, to be sure, but there are ways to work around the software and make it happen. Dreamwidth doesn't work as smoothly as Live Journal, but it's also not Russian owned, which seems to be the determining basis for the move. I understand it on ethical grounds, especially after the war crimes we're seeing occur in Ukraine. It's a reasonable decision. I'll continue to use LJ, and my paid membership continues into 2023, but after my paid membership ends, I'll just stick with a free membership. I won't cut Live Journal out of my life completely. There are people there I deeply care for and wouldn't like to lose track of. 

Bleh! The movement from Live Journal to 
Dreamwidth is a tempest in a teacup. It really 
doesn't affect me, although my writing group 
has shifted over. I'll still post on the three 
locations I post every time - my blog, 
Dreamwidth and Live Journal. Small 
ripples in my water. 

So, I'm wrapping this up. Time to get my pool reservation made for Thursday and get myself motivated to go to work. Have I said "Bleh!" recently? Yeah - work ... "Bleh!" LOL Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

The Great Migration Continues - Now LJ Idol, My Writing Group, Is Moving to Dreamwidth

Over the past few weeks, for very understandable reasons, there has been a massive migration of people from Live Journal to Dreamwidth. I didn't migrate for a simple reason - I've been on both platforms for a very long time. But there are many on-line friends who are only on one or the other, and I respect whatever decision they make. This morning I got the message that my writer's group is moving from LJ to DW beginning with the next prompt. That's OK, I did a shorter writing stint with them on DW last year and things went fine. But I'm sure it will be difficult for some (and easier for others). 

Although I'm not "moving" per se, I will make DW the  
more primary posting site for me and use LJ as 
my secondary one. I won't renew my LJ membership 
when it comes due, and I already expanded my DW 
membership to be a paid one earlier this year. 

I have my LJ site backed up, and I post on both every day. I suspect I will not renew my paid membership when it comes up for renewal, and I've already established a paid membership with DW. My major problem is that LJ is much smoother to operate under, but needs must. With the various war crimes the Russian soldiers are committing in Ukraine, and the fact that Russia is at war with Ukraine at all, I totally concur with the decision of the moderator to move our writing group completely over to Dreamwidth. 

We might need to change our logo from LJ Idol 
to DW Idol. But the people will be the same (for the 
most part) and the challenges will continue. I'm 
really enjoying being a part of the group - writing 
challenges are always fun for me and stretch my 
mind. The platform won't make an appreciable 
difference to me one way or the other. 

It's fortunate that we have two very similar websites available for this type of back and forth. I'm also fortunate that most of my friends are on both platforms because I would hate to lose track of any of them. I'll keep posting to both, my paid membership on LJ doesn't expire until sometime in 2023 and even then, when I don't renew, the only thing I'll lose are my various user pics. I should start getting those set up on DW, but it's not urgent. I've never used either site as a platform for my photos - those have always been on my own computer and cut/pasted into my daily blog. So there's very little that will ruffle my feathers. 

I'm not getting my feathers all ruffled with the move over 
to Dreamwidth. It might be harder for others of my 
friends - old and new. I'm more disappointed that the 
inhumanity of war has made this move a necessity 
for so many, including my writers' group. 

But the fact that this has become necessary, even encouraged, as a reaction against the war and the atrocious war crimes committed by Russia just burns me. The mounting long list of atrocities committed by Russia in their war against Ukraine steals the warmth from my heart. Seeing the sights and hearing about the ever-increasing casualties, causes me physical pain. I don't listen to the non-stop war news because I physically can't take it. I get the high (or low) points several times a day, but I'm not like DH. I can't tolerate having the TV on all day, listening non-stop to this long list of human suffering and atrocity. 

I'm going to reduce my footprints on 
LiveJournal and increase them on 
Dreamwidth. I feel I have no choice 
left but this. 

So to make a long story shorter, I'm going to minimize my footprint on Live Journal and expand it on Dreamwidth. I suspect that most, if not all, of my friends on LJ will end up moving over to DW, and I'm happy to welcome each one of you. I'm "erulissedances" on Dreamwidth. If you move over to that platform, please make sure to send me a "friend" request. I don't want to lose any friends over this miserable and horrific war. 

I've had an account on Dreamwidth for several years, 
so moving from LiveJournal over to DW isn't really 
the issue for me. I have some friends who are only 
on one or the other, though, and I don't want to lose 
track of any of them. 

So, have an excellent weekend. I'll be trying to relax a bit and work on the photographs I took yesterday. I succeeded in getting all of the 6mm Swarovski cubes photographed, but now I need to work with those photos on the laptop, and get things in a format and size which will work on Etsy. Have an excellent weekend, continue to pray and work for peace, and I'll be back (on both platforms) on Monday. Peace! 

Paperwork and Hoops To Jump Through

We had a meeting with our accountant last night for our personal income taxes. While DH sat next to me fussing and organizing his paperwork, I went through the stack I had prepared one-by-one with Paul, handing him the receipts for banking, specialized accounts, charitable donations (all mine, of course), and other detail paperwork. I handed over my stack and I was done. DH was still organizing. But he got things together quickly, handed Paul the rest of the paperwork - investment information, his own banking information, etc., and then we were done. Easy, peasy. We got back home and the chicken I had taken from the oven just before we left was still toasty warm. 

The IRS pushed back the filing dates for corporations 
and now have also pushed back the filing date for 
personal income tax returns. Will the state follow suit? 
It would certainly make things easier, but we're 
already almost ready to file anyway. 

The IRS has pushed back their deadline for income tax filing. Of course, we have no idea if our state has also decided to follow the federal change. All too often the state does what it wants, despite or in spite of the federal guidelines. But, at least we're ready to go. 

I like my local appliance store, generally they have 
pretty good people working there. This repair has 
been dragging out, however, because of snafus and 
mix-ups on both our ends. We're working to get 
things back on track and I hope I'll have a repaired 
dryer by the beginning of April, or sooner. 

I also finally talked to someone intelligent enough at my appliance store, to follow the numbers with me and come up with a total still owed for my dryer repair. We both, independently, came up with the same dollar amount, so bravo for us. I authorized it, paid the remainder, and as soon as the two additional parts come in, we'll get the repair scheduled. I estimate I'll have 1-2 more weeks of laundromat trips - NOT my favorite thing at all, but I've met some interesting people and had some fun conversations while folding my dried clothing. 

I like my local laundromat. I've met some very interesting 
people over the weeks that I've been going there, and a 
few times, it's been almost empty. Yesterday, however, 
it was hopping. I still got my favorite dryer, though. 

The past few days, Dreamwidth hasn't been reposting to LifeJournal, so I've had to actually copy and paste to get my daily posting up in both locations. I do hope they get that cleared up soon, it's a bit of a PITA to have to do the extra work. Of course, I'm not going to skip posting in both locations, I have on-line friends who only read in one or the other place, friends I value and enjoy commentary from. 

I'm not as fond of Dreamwidth as I 
am of LiveJournal, and many of my 
on-line friends are on both servers. 
But, I have some friends who are distince 
on one or the other, and have no intention 
of losing friends just because cross-
posting has become a PITA once again. 

On that note, I'm off to find photos for today's blog and get it posted. Have an excellent Thursday and please, be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Dreamwidth v LiveJournal - Both Have Their Issues

It didn't take long. I'm entrapped in B2MeM once again. The lure of BINGO and the call of characters and a legendarium that I simply can't resist for long have ensnared me. Yup - caught again, hook, line and sinker. The downside of the experience is posting on DreamWidth. I actually post my blog on DW every day with it cross-posting over to Live Journal, but I find LJ much easier to navigate through and I catch comments and the postings of other authors in the community much faster and easier on Live Journal. But, I have to move along with the times. 

I normally post at Dreamwidth with a cross-posting
command to Live Journal, but I can't have an automatic
crosspost on a post I make in a community. Thus, my
B2MeM stories will remain on Dreamwidth only. 

Why the switch? A year or two (or maybe even longer by now) there was a big "kerfluffle" about Live Journal being taken over by the Russians. It's probably true, they are likely getting some of my money every month or year because I am a premium member of Live Journal, but I love posting there. I had joined Dreamwidth years ago, though, so as people migrated over, it wasn't a problem to keep in touch via both locations. 

I like posting at LiveJournal, and I love their message
notification screens and the ease in which I can
update my account specifics. Dreamwidth just seems
clunkier. 

In the intervening years I've changed this and that to continue to post my daily blog. Over the ten+ yeas I've been doing this, I've jumped over a lot of stumbling blocks. I'm not sure how many jumps I have left in me, but I'm going to try and keep going on my daily blog as long as I can. It's my "shout out" to the universe and my touchstone with my friends. 

Stumbling blocks? Maybe. Or maybe instead they
are stepping stones. By gritting my teeth and
wanting to participate, I'll gain a better understanding
of both platforms. It will be a win/win by the
end of the month. 

So back to the current scenario. 

I knew I wanted to participate in B2MeM, also knew they had moved over to Dreamwidth and that they were no longer overseen by the Silmarillion Writers Guild. That meant I had to make sure I was a member of the B2MeM community on DW, a bit easier said than done. I finally followed a few links from friends to find the community and join it, but I still don't get front-page notification of new stories, I actually have to move over to my "reading" page to see them. A minor detail, but an extra step. 

Thanks go out to all of the mods for B2MeM and
other posting boards. It's not an easy task, but
your work is appreciated. 

I'm sure by the time I'm a week into the challenge, I'll have my posting format and tags nailed, but in the meanwhile, thanks go out to the mods for their hard work. It's always a bit rough in the beginning, and I'm quite sure their workload is much heavier for the first week than for the last one. So, having written story #1, I went to sleep and dreamed about story #2. I'm indulging in my dark side this B2MeM, and I'm not sure I'm going dark enough with the prompts for today. Time to re-evaluate Horror Crossover before putting fingers to keyboard. 

Have an excellent Saturday and a wonderful weekend. I'll return on Monday, hopefully a bit more experienced at posting in this year's BINGO. Be good, do something you love, and hug another living thing - person, pet or troll - your choice. 

LJ? DreamWidth? How About Both!

So many good things today -

• it's above zero for one. Well, to be accurate, it's 1 F with a windchill of -8 F, so a heatwave - LOL. 
• It's a Saturday - we close the shop an hour earlier on Saturdays. 
• I'm back to a normal schedule, so no working on Sunday - I might have time to do some more housecleaning instead which would make me very happy. 

Now all I need is a good swim and a nice breakfast.

It's too bad Perkins doesn't do a good breakfast burrito. I'm really in
the mood for some Tex-Mex food. One thing I miss about living
in the Southwest is the food. 

My sympathies to those living in the Southern US - you're getting hit with a snow and ice storm with freezing rain, cold temps, and weather you see so rarely that you'll be unaccustomed as to how to deal with it. Hunker down, people. It will pass and if you're not on the icy roads, you'll be safe.

I've had a DreamWidth account for years, and I post my blog there
every day, but I find it less lively than LiveJournal. I have so many
friends and communities on LJ and I don't feel that DW is as active. 

A lot of my friends are moving their journals to Dreamwidth from Live Journal. This is because the servers for LJ have been moved to Russia and people are concerned about their security, copyrights for their writings, and probably other issues like control of images. I admit, I'm a little worried. We've had scares similar to this before, but the servers hadn't actually been moved before now. This time things seem more amped up. I'm still using both websites, and I'm really comfortable with LJ so I'm not moving right now, but if you want to join my Circle on DW, message me and I'll give you my ID over there so that you can join my circle.

Damned world politics and Russian imperialism - GRRRRRRR.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday.

Clusterf**k - Experiences of a Member of Cluster #9

There is a term used called clusterf**k (fill in the ** - I think you can figure it out). Urban Dictionary defines it as:

 Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up") and "FUBAR" (Fucked Up Beyond All Repair).  

with a secondary definition of:  

Traditionally/originally of military origin.  Today, however, "clusterfuck" is commonly used to descriptively generalize any situation with a large scale of disarray. 

That's basically what seems to have happened to Live Journal yesterday and that's what will cause double-posting for me today (posting both Thursday's and Friday's blog). 

Apparently LJ has their population assorted into various clusters - thirteen of them to be precise. At some point Wednesday problems came into being for clusters #7 and #9 making it difficult (if not impossible) for people and groups in those clusters to access the service or post anything. Cluster #7 was fixed early Thursday morning and it was speculated that another hour would bring Cluster #9 back on-line. WRONG!

This piece of wonderful colorful art is called Clusterfuck and
is by wojtekww on deviantart.

When I finally gave up on Cluster #9's functionality, it was more than twelve hours after the initial "another hour" had been posted and the admins had posted an apology for the length of time it was taking. Now...I'm NOT a computer programmer - I'm much more of a computer programming idiot. I am a computer user who couldn't use one of my major groups yesterday because I happen to be a member of Cluster #9. 

Doesn't life seem like this sometimes? This great pic is
by Jessica Jass.

But...today all is well again. No more Clusterf**k and I can post again. So I can wish a friend a happy birthday, post yesterday's blog, and in a few minutes I can post today's. 

So I wonder...what will go wrong today?

Post #1199 and Breakfast (Yes, normal stuff.)

I'm rather amazed...this is my 1199th blog post.  I started this blog several years ago just to get my thoughts in order every day.  I posted for a long time just at Blogger, then when I joined the Live Journal and Dreamwidth communities, I extended it to encompass them as well.  I've had ups and downs, celebrated and mourned, and worked through creative projects and roadblocks in these electronic pages and generally, lived.  It's been a fun ride and as I begin post #1200 tomorrow I know I'll enjoy continuing the ride.

This pic of Meghan is from July 2011, but

she's still just as cute a year+ later and has

the most adorable young son.  *hugs*

Today I'm joining my friends Chickie and Meghan for breakfast and I'm SO looking forward to it.  Then I can go get my errands finished and settle down to some writing and beta work.  I have to finish up two stories, one that I accepted, the other than is perched on my mind and is in the works.  I'm running out of October time and need to have these wrapped up before November because I won't have any time during November to speak of.

It looks like a lovely and very low-key

wedding.  Rather refreshing in these days

of "Say Yes To The Dress"

I got news via Facebook yesterday that my nephew, Ben Albers, and his long-time girlfriend, Haley, tied the knot yesterday.  So I'm sending out congrats to him and his new wife and wishes for a long and joy filled life together.  I had the chance to meet Haley when they were up here in early September.  We had the chance to spend some time with them at the Renaissance Festival that weekend.  Haley was (and is) a very sweet girl who looks like she won't take a lot of grief from my darling but stubborn nephew.  They'll make a great couple.

Life is Returning to Normal...

So LJ is finally back up and running.  We'll see how long this will last until the next DDoS attack, but I'm happy.  I was able to get my latest drabble posted last night, so I'm current on those again. 

It's still hot, hot, hot here - really sucks to wake up in the middle of the night and realize that you're just dripping wet.  Even though winter is a lot more work in many ways, I'm starting to miss snow.  Someone slap me, please!  Actually, my favorite seasons are spring and fall, and we're approaching fall at breakneck speed! 

On Sunday we're off to see the Tutankhamun - The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum.  I've been wanting to get out there and see this since the exhibit opened in the spring, and just now grabbed the time.  That will leave one open weekend of the first weekend of August, then comes Irish Faire and then Ren Faire starts and goes until October 2nd.  My weekends are already sewn up until late fall.  It's rather amazing! 

DDoS is Driving Me Mad!

Once again Live Journal is under DDoS attack (that is Distributed Denial of Service).  That means that I have only been able to sporadically access my LJ at all, and haven't been able to post at all.  This is driving me crazy.  I have a lot of f-friends that I only reach through LJ.  I have a story waiting for posting and other things to read.  I'm so NOT happy.  The last time that this happened was in April and things were down for a week.  It is the nature of LJ, that as an open forum world-wide, they will be seen as a threat in some nations.  That basically is the issue behind the DDoS, which usually originates from the Soviet/Russian block.  Does the knowledge make it easier to bear?  Not really.  It's just frustrating.  But I know it is just as frustrating for the people who actually own/run that forum and I feel for them.  

In the meanwhile, I'm using my DreamWidth account.  I always post to it, once a day I copy my blog over there, but now many of my f-friends are posting there instead of LJ, so we are in contact still, just not nearly as actively.  Be that as it may, it is frustrating and annoying and I hope it gets cleaned up soon.  Think good thoughts for LJ so that it gets back on line quickly.   

New Day, New Journal, New Goals

Well, April 1st came and I felt empty.  There was no daily prompt that I needed to configure a story to meet, and no deadline to push towards.  But my "friends" (actually, they are friends - very good friends) came to my rescue and posted three different challenges which I promptly fell into.  So I have three other deadlines to meet, one of which is next week, and stories in the works again.  Call me happy :-) 

My keyboard has been getting quite a workout lately.  It's

been so much fun! 

In order to have a place to post my stories, I set up a secondary Live Journal account solely for my writing.  I will be moving all of my B2ME stories over to there and doing some editing on those as well as grouping them in a more chronological manner.  I will be "friend-locking" the journal eventually, so you will have to be approved before you can access it.  Contact me if you are interested in reading on that account and I'll friend you in.  Otherwise, I will still be posting my stories in other public places, including Silmarillion Writers Guild and Lord of the Rings Fan Fiction. 

I think I want a nice ocean view.  Since there is no

ocean within 1000's of miles from Minnesota, I'll just

have to use a picture for my weekend relax.  Now...

where is my drink with the little umbrella and the

cabana boy....

I have my day off coming up tomorrow, Italian to look forward to tonight, my husband's hydrocodone to keep the pain to manageable levels and nothing to worry about until Tuesday evening.  Then I'll allow myself to panic a little bit.  But for now, I'm going to enjoy my weekend.  I'll play Lord of the Rings Online tomorrow, I'll write a little bit, and I'll swing by Target to pick up a few groceries...all will be peaceful and restful, at least for one short span of time.  Have a great weekend - think Spring! 

Back to Schedule

It was so pleasant to have my day off.  I bought a couple of magazines for holiday gifts and dropped off one gift for a friend.  I was supposed to clean, and I didn't.  But I did spend an hour at the sewing machine doing some mending - my husband's pants and three skirts of my own that had developed tears.  His pants are really on their last legs, but I have the tailor making two pairs for me to gift to him for the holidays.  I'll be picking them up next Wednesday.  Today, it's back to the grind.  But the holiday schedule is winding down. 

Mending clothing.  I don't really enjoy hand sewing (unless there are
beads involved) so I usually use my sewing machine. 

I did spend a fair amount of time on the computer yesterday, writing and exchanging with friends that I have on Live Journal.  I usually copy my blog over to there in the mornings, but I have also had a unique amount of fun with them by adopting an elf for a day, spurred on by my friend Sian in England.  It's been a lot of fun, something that I will continue periodically.  And it has proved to be quite funny for both my readers over there and myself.  And no, to bring those posts over to this blog would not make a lot of sense because many of the characters I am talking about in those posts are AU (alternative universe) and don't appear in actual Lord of the Rings or Tolkien writings. 

National flags can inspire such strong feelings.  The US is
remarkable in the number of national flags that are displayed

throughout the country. 

I have a unique group of friends over on LJ who are stretching my mind in ways that I would not have contemplated.  I have a friend who often will put Latin quotations up with translations.  I haven't worked on my Latin since the late 1960's but I am having a wonderful time reading and independently trying to translate the words before reading the "official" translation.  I have such a multi-national group of friends over there that I feel expanded and far less insular just by sharing with such a diverse group.  So, since they will read this also, I'll just say "Thank You" to all of my LJ friends for just being there.  It has really meant a lot to me.