Hiatus

Until further notice, or server failure, my posts and updates will be occurring solely on IJ. I just cannot keep up with multiple accounts and would rather devote all of my attention to one place.

Updates here at Nanny Ashtoreth.

Because I am a masochist;

I watched ten minutes too many of the new Minder.

It was awful. I forever associate Shane Ritchie with Flushed Away and that’s what Five should have done with this idea, cast, and script. It wasn’t even one of those ‘it’s so awful it’s good in a way’ shows either.

Oh god, my brain. Now it just hurts more.

Monday’s mix

I have seen the PEDTM ideas floating around f-lists now and in the past, and one time flirted with the idea*. Then I realised that there are days where my morning pages read like this:

I don’t know what to write. That’s fine. Just write something. But I don’t know what to write. That’s fine, just write something. But… I don’t know what to write. Okay, just write something. But. I. Don’t. Know. What. To. Write. That’s. Okay. Just. Write. Something.

Yes, block-buster material there, I tell you. If my PEDTM entries were like that, I’d feel obliged to post everyone who read it a gift card to the local vintner, and as that is not feasible, I think that I will continue to skip the PEDTM.

You’re welcome. *grin*

The abbreviated Report from the River Styx**: A very relaxing time, indeed. Mer and I left a little later than planned, as I just took longer to wake up than I wanted. I was tired, what can I say. Happily, driving at 80mph did no damage to us or the car, and we made it, more or less, on time. The beasties spent the weekend at their friend’s house, which included a Saturday exclusively spent playing WarHammer40K, so I think they enjoyed their own time doing their ’stuff’.

The birthday party for my niece was at The Little Gym. It’s a franchise run gymnastics school for the wee’uns, and they had a grand time. Mer was the oldest there, but she loves the little ones and was just in heaven with Hailey and Shelby, who are almost six and looking up to her as they buzzed about the gym.

After cupcakes and singing, we went to my aunt’s house for dinner and to celebrate the other five birthdays. Yes! Six in the span of 12 days. We have sour beef and dumplings each year, and dear god, I swear it tastes better and better each year.

Sunday we just puttered around, we girls. Other than packing and unpacking the car [all of one overnight bag, so it wasn't a huge ordeal, really] we did nothing. Mer played her DS games and once we were home, I started a new game of FFVIII. Haven’t played that for a long time, and I had fun. I was going to load up FFX, but the lure of Blitzball is too strong and I’d not resurface for ages. It’s probably a good thing that Blitzball isn’t a real world sport.

All told, it was good… it was needed by all… and I intend to keep it like this.

*Although, PEDTM posts might just contain things like this:

Grilled Vegetable and Mozzarella Panini

Ingredients
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 medium eggplant, cut lengthwise into 8 slices (1/4 inch each)
1 medium zucchini, cut into 8 slices (1/4 inch each)
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and quartered
8 slices ciabatta
1 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella
8 large fresh basil leaves

Preparation – Whisk vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray; place vegetables in 1 layer on sheet. Brush both sides of eggplant and zucchini with vinegar mixture. Spray all vegetables with cooking spray and place under broiler, 7 to 8 minutes, turning once and coating with cooking spray. Lightly brush 4 bottom slices of ciabatta with remaining vinegar mixture; pile veggies, cheese and basil on each of the slices. Close sandwiches; spray both sides with cooking spray. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add sandwiches. Place a second skillet on top of sandwiches and press down. Cook 4 minutes, flipping once. Serve.

**There will be a longer one, and most likely f-locked, so there you have it.

Enter Lily

Or, as I will call her, Miol Draide, the great grey shark. She earned the name after sneaking upon my feet this morning and curling up around them after taking a test nibble to make sure that they were no threat to her. The brazen hussy, thinking she can endear herself to me so easily. I held out until the head butts to the face began and she was a total love sponge.

She’s got a clean bill of health from the vet. Turns out our grey lady is five months old, no fleas, no mites, and almost fairly certainly going to be part of the menagerie here. While our vet didn’t recognise her, we’re still going to be on the look out for ‘Lost Kitten’ posters because she’s too comfortable around people and far too healthy to have been feral. If no posters are spotted, it looks as if Lily will be staying. Puck, of course, is quite miffed. Quite. Barbie barked once at her, the token ‘mind your place pipsqueak’ and has since ignored her.

I need my head examined.

Well, that didn’t last long…

No, really, the euphoria of a new year coming in is still here, although slightly elusive at the moment. I shall blame the weather. My shoulder and knee are in a state of constant aching from the rain, and while that’s not horrible on its own, it occurring hand-in-glove with getting back into the normal routine elevates it [the ache] to a grumble worthy event.

Other grumbles? Algebra. The bane of my existence has returned with unholy glee. However, I now have geometry to attack back with, as the beastiette’s class has moved into the realms of geometry.

I will never, ever again watch another news programme. Made that mistake last night, and well… enough said.

Head cold? We are currently in the midst of a wild on again/off again romance. I’m all for the off bits, but the cold is pushing for on. Hopefully I will win, but given that I went to bed at 11[!!] last night and slept until 8:30 this morning might be an ill omen. Time to step up the C again, and lay in a stock of peppers, ginger, and raw honey.

On the other hand, there is good news.

Parent/Teacher conference for the beastiette went well. Oh the horror of middle school… Her classwork and participation are ‘A’ level, but she’s consistently failling to turn in her homework, which is odd considering that she does her homework each night. The root of the problem is the locker area, which is an absolute pit of monstrous horror and confusion, a sentiment expressed by the teachers. We went to the beastiette’s locker, she opened it, had time to find all the missing assignments and give them to her teachers. We’re working on a strategy for her so she can by-pass the pit of horrors from now on; and while the teachers cannot relax their rules and let her go back to get her work if she’s hassled and jostled overly much, they are going to accept it from her if she takes it to the office and asks the secretaries to put the work in the teacher’s in-box. I will be buying a larger binder for her and several pocket folders to go into it so she can just carry everything with her and only need to use the locker to store her coat, lunch, and book bag each day.

I am emerging from the mid-winter hibernation and beginning to turn my mind to sharing more here now that there’s been some ‘me’ time. Granted much of that time was spent surrounded by family, but that too is good. Next time, though, I am going to find a way to sneak a few days just to myself in there, though.

I have some hand-written letters to post this week. I’ve just been finding my thoughts scattered trying to sit down and send emails lately, although with being back to the 9-5 routine, that might change again with the shifting energies. Still, there is a wonderful magic in pen, ink, and paper.

Other [not quite] breaking news:

The new face of Doctor Who. The internet feeding frenzy is just mind-boggling! Holy cow, people! It is a television programme. The world will not implode with this change. Hmm… If all those people just harnessed their energy and did something productive in the world, I might be able to watch the evening news again. That said, he is a bit goofy looking, but I double-dog dare you to show me one Doctor [with the exception of Peter Davison] who wasn’t just a bit goofy looking. Also, I did quite like his interview in the Confidential and, as with every other new Doctor, will reserve judgment until I see his performance on screen.

With that, my coffee mug is sadly empty again and I must go remedy that before stepping back into the daily grind.

From the holly and ivy bedecked barge of Kharon…

A belated holiday report from the River Styx.

The car was packed and loaded on Tuesday night, giving me some free time to relax, which was needed; as we went up the road to my mother’s house early Wednesday morning. It was enough time to relax before getting ready to go out to my cousin’s house for Christmas Eve dinner. Cousin Fabio has decided to add a beard tot he goldilocks he’s sporting, so the highlight of the night was hearing his brother ask if his girlfriend was coming over for supper and then making the smart remark of ‘but she’ll miss singing Happy Birthday to you at midnight,” when told she would be with her mother that night. Cracked us all up and Fabio is now JC.

Christmas morning, my aunt, uncle, and cousin came over for breakfast after the beasties opened their presents. Then my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece came over, more for brunch, but with a 5 and soon-to-be 3 year old, enough said about trying to get them out the door early. Then it was back out to my other cousin’s house for Christmas dinner. We are fairly relaxed and low-key during the holidays. I think we’re all at the age where we’d rather sit at home and enjoy each other’s company along with good food and good drink instead of rushing all around trying to cram as much into the season as possible. It gets you nothing but tired and cranky.

Did nothing for Boxing/St. Stephen’s Day. Slept through all the Premier League matches and will have to watch MOTD in a bit to catch the highlights.

Got back today, and am listening to the beasties play Dawn of War 4… joy. The beastiette is staying with my mother until the 3rd [lucky thing] and looking very forward to having her quiet time with her Nana. Going to pop a ham in the oven and then begin to think about relaxing tonight. If they play DoW4 all night, I just might go hide in the beastiette’s room and enjoy the quiet there with the dog and the cat.

Enter Henrietta

I have been relieved of dish duty. The reason being the decision I made regarding the hamster that was found on our doorstep. Yes, I know, stretches my credulity, too, and I was there when the beasties were taking the garbage out, ran back in, grabbed a near empty coffee jar and then rushed back out to scoop up the shivering creature.

She’s a cute little thing, dark grey and white, and as friendly as can be. She’s currently in the empty coffee pot, it’s all I could find, and the cat is feeling very put out at the intrusion. The dog is gloating that the cat is put out and probably thinking ‘now you know how it feels.’ Tomorrow it will be off to PetSmart to buy a habitat for her and an early Yule present for the beasties. The eldest has named her Henrietta, and the name seems to be sticking.

Which just leaves me curious… just what exactly does it mean when the universe delivers a hamster, literally, to your doorstep?

Questions~

They are coming and so are the answers for Mysteries of the Dark Moon. This week just threw a curve ball my way, and I am taking my time to rebound from it and not getting myself all stressed out over the rebound period. My copy of the book looks rather festive right now with the little coloured post-it flags decorating the pages that have the questions on them. It’s fairly cheerful sitting here on my desk.

Instead of looking at myself as falling behind in so many areas, I am looking at this as myself on a treadmill. What I miss this round will come back by and be addressed then… or not, and will be let go until the next cycling.

Also, to the absolute jackass who initiated the festive season beginning with a parade leading to his store front the day after Thanksgiving… you, sir, need to roast slowly in hell in your own juices. The Yule season should be 21 Dec – 8 Jan, thank you very much.

Slightly more productive weekend

I got some blocks dissolved and some more resolution with issues that are nagging at me, which overall makes me a very happy camper. I’ve made it up to the portion on Hekate in Mysteries of the Dark Moon but have just been riding more on the energies of other areas so that I haven’t posted my answers. I hope to get that done tomorrow whilst the beasties are at the orthodontist.

Once more there is a strange time warp where it goes from 6 pm to near on 9 pm in the span of thirty-forty minutes, so whomever is responsible for that, please to be stopping it. Thank you.

My mother was funny tonight on the phone. She said that if Bowe’s [the game shop where the beasties play their WarHammer40k stuff] was open on Saturday that she wouldn’t be upset if we came home early from the Christmas visit. I think they may have overwhelmed her with their boyish beastie outbursts over Thanksgiving. I might do that, and let beastiette stay up a few days before going up and collecting her. She adores the one-on-one time with her Nana, and at 11 is about all the boisterousness my mother can take for prolonged times.

Going to run the dog out for the last time, it is winter out! and then make some tea and settle in for my relaxation time.

Notes to self~

1] This evening, sit at the dining room table and not on the sofa. The chance to fall over asleep is less likely.

2] Find winning lottery ticket or Sugar Daddy [or Momma] ASAP.

3] Drink more water and less caffeine today at Hell work.