The Dastardly Dungeon of Deliciously Devious Drinks

greendragon said:

I treasure the handmade items I own. My mom's friend, "Aunt" Gayle, made me an afghan for my wedding. It's been used on occasion, but carefully stored right now. I don't trust the cats with it. I also have needlepoint valances my grandmother made in the Blue Willow Pattern - 7 of them, all solid needlepoint, each one about 2'X8' large. I treasure those. They were made before I was born, and graced the valances in the house I grew up in. I also have several oil paintings my mom painted before I was born. One is a medieval bard-type sitting by a river with a castle in the background. The other is a Gandalf-esque wizard in an invisible cloak in the woods.

Nope, no idea why I grew up loving fantasy. No idea at all.

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'Tis a mystery for sure.

Re: appreciating handmade things, my paternal aunt is the only other one in the family who has enough crafty ability to make things for people. When she makes things for me, I cherish them. My favorite as of late is a tote bag she made me that looks like Bilbo Baggins' vest and the handles are supposed to be reminiscent of the reins of the pony he had to ride when he left the Shire to go to Erebor. She did a great job with it and I always use it to carry my yarn projects when my parents and I go on road trips.

As for my own crafts, my mom's side of the family are the only ones who forget to express appreciation, and they've actually gotten better about it in recent years since the girls are now old enough to say what they like and ask if I'm making them something for birthdays or Christmas. My dad's side has always been great about expressing appreciation and they actually do use the stuff I make. My uncle still wears a winter hat I knit for him back when I was 15 or 16 and my aunt and Grammy both still use the things I made for them, too.

Yzjdriel said:

I would throw him a life preserver made of Mountain Dew cans and hope for a combination of b and c, preferably ending in it exploding as far away from me as possible.

But that's my response to the metaphor, not the question.

If I liked the plot bunny before everything went sideways, I would pin him up to dry. If it was just a 'meh', life preserver made of Mountain Dew.

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This^.


I got more words done yesterday than I thought I did. 400+. I probably could have done double that, but the dress form I ordered came at just the right time of daybfor photo taking, so I unboxed it and put it together and ran around taking photos of new scarves and old scarves that needed better photos than I could get when my mom and I were forced to begrudgingly model them. (My mom hates her neck and wouldn't wear anything that showed it, and I didn't like having to had the camera over to her to take photos when she doesn't understand what shots I need. I also didn't want my face on every other listing in my shop.) Wanna see? https://www.instagram.com/p/BT2ZX-7hXoW/

Not bad, if I do say so myself. I'd looked at stores like Joann' s and Michael's for dress forms and the cheapest they had was $250!! Haha, no! I just need it to put scarves and the occasional long necklace on for photos, I'm not a professional seamstress who needs a professional quality form! I went to Etsy and found that^ one from a supply shop for $79 and free shipping. It got here in under 5 days, it's good quality, and it's *exactly* what I needed. #powershopping

WIP words and Etsy listing photo editing will happen today.

Woof! So, I have been word warring every night for the past..... Several! Nights. my word count has increased significantly AND my new compatriot in war and words is p dern awesome! Y'all gotta consider joining us! We will adapt your culture to our own and learn from you also, any werdz is better than none and this takes the lonelies out of writing alone without the pressure of socialising in person. Is great.

Tonight's first war is @ 8:15 est, in this thread on AW: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?178580-Word-Wars!/page5

Remember, the war of the words is not fought with other writers, but with yourself prior to battle's beginning. That means +1 werdz is a victory!!!

I will be useless today. Female issues are quite unpleasant this time. Once hubby is out the door, I'm going to crawl back into bed with a hot water bottle and take another nap.

tiddlywinks said:

So, hypothetical question here: say you accidentally dropped your plot bunny in the pond below your deck...after the plot bunny went rabid from drinking your last can of Mountain Dew and came at you like he'd been watching Monty Python again. Do you think it would be a good idea to a) fish out the plot bunny and pin him up by the ears to dry on your deck, b) throw him a life preserver and hope he swims to the far distant shore, or c) hope his stomach explodes from eating peeps and pop rocks and he sinks to the bottom of the pond, never to be heard from again?

Just asking. For a friend, of course.

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*steals your bunneh*

So Winks, when I stole your plot bunny, did you feel severe irritation and want to brain me with a bat, or relieved?

It's the Cantina version of flipping a coin to see how you really feel about a decision.

Also please don't actually brain me with a bat.

I have edited ALL THE PHOTOS!!! Of my knit and crochet items, anyway. On several of those listings, particularly the ones I put up when I first started my shop, I'd failed to make use of all 5 available photos, so I took those photos yesterday, re-took several that weren't that good, and replaced and filled in and edited and *keels over* I have two new crochet fashion scarves that I photographed and edited too, but I'll space out when I post them for the sake of...spacing them out.

Now for wordage.


ETA: while deleting the copies of all those photos from my phone, I discovered that there were 75 of them. No wonder my eyeballs hurt. 0.o

Hey guys, I don't know if you remember the story, "Waverly Wong, Half-Selkie Realtor," but I've spent a few weeks polishing it into a sparkly turd. I may even try submitting somewhere!
The problem is, I need the intro to stick because the premise is pretty freaking weird. I get recurring visions of some poor slush pile reader going, "WTF is this?" and tossing it out. Thus I've let it loose in the general population of the Science Fiction SYW forum, to see how it does.
So... Citizens of the Cantina, please feel free to mosey on down there and crush my coal into diamonds! Griffins needs you! *points vaguely in your direction*

Today is Frustration Day.

Issue #1: I had an extra room reservation for Dragoncon at the Hilton Atlanta. I was trying to add a friend's name to the reservation so he could have the room. It took me FIVE phone calls, each time they assured me the reservation now had his name on it, and that the email would reflect that. None did until the last one.

Issue #2: My phone is ghosting. Took it to the AT&T store last week. "Too many apps open. That's all I know. Here." Took it to Geeksquad (since no Apple stores nearby). They said the multitouch is failing and the battery is consumed. They can offer a replacement for $250. Ick. Well, I decided to call AT&T first to see if they had a better option. They USED to have a clause in their contract that said after two years, you got a free or discounted upgrade. Evidently that's no longer the case and they can't even replace my iPhone 5c with a 5c. It would be a forced upgrade and at least $400 if not $650. Grr. And this after shelling out $2700 for a new engine last week!

GD: So a year or so ago AT&T did a thing where they stopped rolling the price of an upgraded phone into their monthly rates. In theory this was meant to keep the monthly rates lower and in competition with some of the other providers (where you only paid for the service, not the phone). Which makes some sense for newer customers but not so much for older ones who were accustomed to the free phone upgrade.

ION, been noodling on some cover ideas. Also need to tackle revisions this evening. Need to get more stuff ready for LibertyCon.

Aggy, missed nap today and is tired

Got my very first Etsy review this afternoon and it was 5 stars!

Yzjdriel said:

I would throw him a life preserver made of Mountain Dew cans and hope for a combination of b and c, preferably ending in it exploding as far away from me as possible.

But that's my response to the metaphor, not the question.

If I liked the plot bunny before everything went sideways, I would pin him up to dry. If it was just a 'meh', life preserver made of Mountain Dew.

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Metaphor...

JJ Litke said:

*steals your bunneh*

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*locks balcony door, closet doors and all windows*

SUCKER!!! No take-backsies!

JJ Litke said:

So Winks, when I stole your plot bunny, did you feel severe irritation and want to brain me with a bat, or relieved?

It's the Cantina version of flipping a coin to see how you really feel about a decision.

Also please don't actually brain me with a bat.

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No, no, I have a Markadien war spear for that, remember? Though there's a certain alien who set on borrowing it, so that just leaves me with my machete. Oh, and my cutlass.

And no, no I did not feel severe irritation. You can have that plot bunneh. Please, by alllll means, take him.*




*Note in the invisible fine print tattooed on his ear that you can never ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER return him. Ever*

greendragon said:

Issue #2: My phone is ghosting. Took it to the AT&T store last week. "Too many apps open. That's all I know. Here." Took it to Geeksquad (since no Apple stores nearby). They said the multitouch is failing and the battery is consumed. They can offer a replacement for $250. Ick. Well, I decided to call AT&T first to see if they had a better option. They USED to have a clause in their contract that said after two years, you got a free or discounted upgrade. Evidently that's no longer the case and they can't even replace my iPhone 5c with a 5c. It would be a forced upgrade and at least $400 if not $650. Grr. And this after shelling out $2700 for a new engine last week!

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Are you terribly attached to AT&T? Sometimes switching carriers and using a promotional offer might net you better monthly rates or some sort of rebate on the phone. It sounds like AT&T is just selling you an iPhone 7 for $650, which is the same price if you bought from Apple directly. You'd think a long-time customer with a multi-year contract would get some sort of discount. If not, I'd just buy from Apple out of spite. They're more flexible and you can always switch carriers later. Also, Apple has a trade-in program, though I think a 5c will only get you $55. AT&T probably has something similar.
I dunno about that Geeksquad offer. They don't sell 5c's anymore, so make sure that isn't some sort of certified refurbished item.

GD, have you tried talking to Apple via their online support? Sometimes they'll give you some other things to try first for troubleshooting, though they may ultimately tell you "get thee to a store"... I found them really helpful when I had an iPad crap out.

Morning, Cantina.

Today is a busy day. Have to get cracking on these revisions/edits. (Reasonably straightforward. There are two new chapters to write though and I'm stressing a little about that.) Also working on some self-pub projects. Also need to tackle more promo. Also need to start reorganizing my notes for my workshop and panel for LibertyCon.

And, today is my ninth wedding anniversary. I have bought special foods (steak and salad stuff and wine) to make dinner this evening. Should be nice.

Anyway. I've been cutting back on some of the social media because I need the time for other things, but I'm still here.

Aggy, All The Busy

Aw frack. Just heard I did not get the position for my dream job that I interviewed for this week. Now I have to try and stop crying before the pre-school pick up and be a normal mummy lady who does not hate everything, no, not at all.

SciSarahTops said:

Aw frack. Just heard I did not get the position for my dream job that I interviewed for this week. Now I have to try and stop crying before the pre-school pick up and be a normal mummy lady who does not hate everything, no, not at all.

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So sorry to hear that. *passes tissues, virtual drinks and chocolate*

Happy anniversary, Aggy!

Sarah. I'm sorry.

Day Three of Froggy housesits the house and dad's menagerie and plant collection. Still alive. I actually have a four-page list with feeding and watering specifics. Still worried I forget to feed one of the buggers. That would be beyond embarassing. I'm an adult, I should be able to do this! I'm almost glad there's rain ahead so I don't have to watch the plants like a hawk either. Something will wilt in the next ten days, I just know it.

Already managed to kill one of the phones by dunking it in the pond. It wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't like the $*#%-effing third time I pull this stunt. Gaah. At least the other two still functioned after drying out. *sigh* Using the time to put Normal Cat on a diet since my mom tends to over-feed him to get him to stop pestering her. Normal Cat is not amused but he knows better than to try anything with me. How many mice parts will I find in the hallway next, though.

Something is digging up my planted bulbs on the balcony! Suspected the squirrels but they're getting through way to small spaces. Climbing mice? Gah. They're everywhere. Maybe that's why Normal Cat is overweighed in the first place. Owls should step up though. Whatever it is, it has already destroyed three pots. The rest is now covered in chicken wire like a little Plantcatraz. I refuse to be defeated by a mere rodent of questionable identity!

zanzjan said:

Still working on a name.

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How about 'Carrot'? Pratchett-style of course.

(Fluffy puppy is too adorable and I'm not even a dogperson.)

E.F.B. said:

Apparently First Girl loved it so much she wore it until she outgrew it, and now Second Girl is wearing and loving it too. I was excessively happy to hear that, not to mention to see that the dress has held up REALLY well even after 6 years! It just...would have been nice to have heard it before now.

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I made a crochet baby blanket for my sister's second baby and have been surprised with how happy she is with it. Baby three is now using it and she's actually still showing it to nearly all of her friends. Pretty pleased with that.

E.F.B. said:

As for my own crafts, my mom's side of the family are the only ones who forget to express appreciation, and they've actually gotten better about it in recent years since the girls are now old enough to say what they like and ask if I'm making them something for birthdays or Christmas. My dad's side has always been great about expressing appreciation and they actually do use the stuff I make. My uncle still wears a winter hat I knit for him back when I was 15 or 16 and my aunt and Grammy both still use the things I made for them, too.

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I once made a pair of shorts for an uncle when my mom was first teaching me how to sew. Since I was maybe 12 at the time, I picked for the fabric something neon green, as you do at that age. The poor man actually wore it on holiday several times and suffered himself to be photgraphed with it. Poor guy, that was some dedication.

Aggy B. said:

And, today is my ninth wedding anniversary. I have bought special foods (steak and salad stuff and wine) to make dinner this evening. Should be nice.

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Congrats!

My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary later this month.

SciSarahTops said:

Aw frack. Just heard I did not get the position for my dream job that I interviewed for this week. Now I have to try and stop crying before the pre-school pick up and be a normal mummy lady who does not hate everything, no, not at all.

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Happy anniversary, Aggy!

SciSarahTops said:

Aw frack. Just heard I did not get the position for my dream job that I interviewed for this week. Now I have to try and stop crying before the pre-school pick up and be a normal mummy lady who does not hate everything, no, not at all.

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Aw, I'm sorry.

Friendly Frog said:

Day Three of Froggy housesits the house and dad's menagerie and plant collection. Still alive. I actually have a four-page list with feeding and watering specifics. Still worried I forget to feed one of the buggers.

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For a second, I thought you were talking about children, and then I saw you meant plants. I was thinking, "A four-page list with feeding and watering instructions for kids????"

How about 'Carrot'? Pratchett-style of course.

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That would be an adorable name, actually.

I once made a pair of shorts for an uncle when my mom was first teaching me how to sew. Since I was maybe 12 at the time, I picked for the fabric something neon green, as you do at that age. The poor man actually wore it on holiday several times and suffered himself to be photgraphed with it. Poor guy, that was some dedication.

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I had the weirdest dreams last night. One featured a large dog, a bear, two wolves, a bigger giant furry thing of unidentifiable nature, and an allosaurus (you read that right) all in my backyard so I couldn't take the beagle out for him to pee. And in another there was some hair dresser in the house and I decided to get some natural color red highlights put in my hair. At some point the hair dresser went away and my mom took over. When she was done, I went to the bathroom mirror to see how it looked and my hair was midnight blue with metallic gold splattered (and I do mean splattered) throughout. It would have been pretty were it not so messy, but I kept thinking about how it was supposed to just be red highlights and how was I going to explain this to people.

I think the dream with the weird animals came from having heard something crashing through the woods last night. (turned out to be deer in RL, but my brain apparently ran with it.) But as for the hair dye? No clue. I've never put dye of any color in my hair and the last time I went to a professional hair stylist was yeeeeeaaaars ago.


In normal RL news, I got an Etsy sale right before bed last night. That makes three in one month, which is the most I've gotten evah! Also brings my total sales to 5 if you count the offline one my mom's coworker gave me.

I also found out what that birthday gift was that's supposed to last me three months because my aunt sent it to me early. I misheard and it turns out that the gift is not physical, it's a Netflix subscription, my aunt gave me enough for four months instead of three, AND I get a free extra month because I've never subscribed to Netflix before. She sent it early because the Anne of Green Gables series starts this week and I'd wanted to check that out. I'm actually afraid they've gone and messed AoGG up because I've heard they've made it "darker" for whatever reason, but even if I don't like that, there's plenty other stuff to watch on Netflix and I have to make good use of my 5 months!

To-do list for today is, ship the Etsy order, get a new Etsy listing up, and then write words.

SciSarahTops said:

Aw frack. Just heard I did not get the position for my dream job that I interviewed for this week. Now I have to try and stop crying before the pre-school pick up and be a normal mummy lady who does not hate everything, no, not at all.

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I'm sorry, Sarah.

tiddlywinks said:

And no, no I did not feel severe irritation. You can have that plot bunneh. Please, by alllll means, take him.*




*Note in the invisible fine print tattooed on his ear that you can never ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER return him. Ever*

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Cool, plot bunneh and psycho pup are two of a kind and getting along great. They keep whispering and giggling together, and their eyes are gleaming red.

This may not have been a good idea.

tiddlywinks said:

GD, have you tried talking to Apple via their online support? Sometimes they'll give you some other things to try first for troubleshooting, though they may ultimately tell you "get thee to a store"... I found them really helpful when I had an iPad crap out.

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griffins said:

Are you terribly attached to AT&T? Sometimes switching carriers and using a promotional offer might net you better monthly rates or some sort of rebate on the phone. It sounds like AT&T is just selling you an iPhone 7 for $650, which is the same price if you bought from Apple directly. You'd think a long-time customer with a multi-year contract would get some sort of discount. If not, I'd just buy from Apple out of spite. They're more flexible and you can always switch carriers later. Also, Apple has a trade-in program, though I think a 5c will only get you $55. AT&T probably has something similar.
I dunno about that Geeksquad offer. They don't sell 5c's anymore, so make sure that isn't some sort of certified refurbished item.

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Went to AT&T store Friday. "You have too many apps open. That might fix it." Hands phone back.
Called Apple Care Sunday. "Do a factory reset. That might fix it. If not, go to closest Apple store." Did that. Didn't fix it. Closest Apple store is 2 hours away. Closest Apple-approved repair is Geeksquad.
Geeksquad: Your battery is consumed and your multi-touch is dying.

AT&T - I've been with them since 2002, and am grandfathered in on a TRUE, unthrottled unlimited data plan. I routinely use more than 10 a month, especially on art show weekends. I am loathe to switch unless I have true unlimited data elsewhere, and I don't think that exists. However, the fact I can no longer get a free upgrade may change that. I even chatted with their 'loyalty' dept, who offered me a $100 discount on a new phone. The cheapest they could offer was a $550 phone (iPhone SE) less the discount = $450. "Oh, but it's only $15 a month!" "Oh, but that doesn't change the actual cost! Sorry, I'm an accountant. I deal with true numbers not per month numbers."

So, unless I want to spend big bucks, it's the Geek squad (and yes, I'm sure it's refurbished). I just hope the bloody thing gets here in time.

And it looks like I will need a new roof on the house. Damn the past tenants for not MENTIONING there were leaks! Though SOME of the apparent mold/leak stains might just be dark gray spray paint. Yup! You heard me right. They SPRAY painted one bedroom dark gray. Some of it got on the white ceiling, making it look like mold. Oh, and this room now has bright yellow trim. Gack.

I want to curl up and not do anything today, but that isn't an option. I usually do ALL THE THINGS with aplomb and energy. This week has battered me into a quivering mess. Just in time for my in-laws to visit tonight, on a road trip from Indiana back home to Maine. And this weekend is an art show, the first of seven weekends in a row. Gack again.

Someone give me some virtual chocolate that will not interfere with my over-determined weight loss!

*gives GD all the chocolate*

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!

GD: Did you look on Ebay? I replaced my two-three year old phone with an identical one for about $60. (Original cost was $500, but it was during the days of the "free phone" upgrades at AT&T.) Swapping out the sim-card was pretty straightforward and I can deal with reinstalling programs. (Although it sounds like you might have already gotten one from Geeksquad.)

Went to PT this morning. Got stretched. Now at home doing some house stuff. (Scheduled stuff, but figured today was a good day to get it done.) Still need to try for more words, but might opt for a nap instead.

Aggy, a little sore and tired

*sneaks a piece of GD's chocolate**nibble* I did that thing where I ate too much chocolate recently (Damnable $1 fundraiser chocolates) and now I'm craving it when I don't have any. It's bad.