[Current Mood | overstimulated ]

[Listening To | birds ]

The sun is up and we’re unwilling participants in its madness. I was up at around 4am and dozed for an hour between Podrick‘s visits to be cuddled. Around 5am, I woke the household up coughing, and so we’re up 1+ hour earlier than he’d have liked and drinking coffee on the couch.

We were lazy yesterday. I bleached my roots, and should have let it sit longer on my head because it’s not light enough to make my shit real bright. I never have a plan for what color(s) might be next, but would have liked to add some pink to the mix.

Deku Deals alerted me that the “Grand Theft Auto” collection was on sale again, so I snagged that for Shawshank. “Vice City” finished downloading first, so he started that one. By the time we finished lunch, “GTA 3” had installed, and he switched to that one. I haven’t played them yet, but I loved seeing what Saints Row: the Third came out of.

While Shawshank played, I spent all day working on my current project. The bee’s body is finished, and I’m almost done with the wings. I’m enjoying playing with the textures. I noticed the kit is missing a thread color, but I have other colors I can use.

The sunshine continues, at least for the time being. We’re going to put sloth-mode on the back burner for at least part of the day, and drive out to BiggerTown to look through their secondhand shop.

[Current Mood | accomplished ]

Hello, world. Happy Hump Day. Today, we’re continuing the trend of bullshit gray skies and general wetness. At least the birds are happy, they’re enjoying the refilled feeder this morning.

I stitched all day, and finished my first embroidery experiment yesterday afternoon. Needlework isn’t new to me. My grandmother, her sister, and several of my aunts were always working on some sort of needlework, and I had my first project by the time I was 7. This was a very boring day of stitching, at least in terms of this piece, since all I had left was the border (and my initials).

But until yesterday, I’d only finished one project, and that was a counted cross-stitch for a Christmas swap that I hated every second of making. I like this sort of thing better, because I can not and will not be contained by a grid. On the other hand, this is like painting, but with a different medium. In this case, the fabric had a template printed, but to be completely honest, it sucked. The color key was bad, and I think I decided to use things as a rough guide a day or so after I started it.

It didn’t take long for me to begin another kit. Compared to the first piece, where I used only one type of stitch, this one is slightly bigger, and will use a few different stitch techniques. Is it an intermediate piece? I guess. The third kit is still in the drawer, since I didn’t know how to deal with applying the fabric stabilizer with the template.

I can’t even consider starting my “I have an idea” projects yet. I want to finish the kits first, then I can determine what colors I have, and how much more I need to acquire. Shawshank‘s mom told me I can raid her stash. She has all of her stuff, plus Gran’s. When I said something about buying thread during the yard sale, she sternly admonished, “don’t you dare“.

We have no plans today. I’m going to bleach my hair, but that’s as exciting as my shit will be.

[Current Mood | drained ]

[Listening To | news programs ]

Good morning, world. It’s a sunny-ish morning here, and we’re enjoying our coffee. I’m not sure what the weather’s supposed to be, I can’t change it, and I don’t have plans, so the forecast doesn’t matter in the long run. I know it’s warming up a bit as the week marches on. There’s some big machines in town today, making a whole lotta noise. It almost sounds like civilization out there.

We relaxed last night. I drank ginger ale and ate my chicken noodle soup with a couple of slices of bread and butter. I’ll be pushing fluids today, and rehydrating myself. I’m trying to be better about drinking water. It’s easier when I’m working, because I’m talking constantly and I’ll easily empty my 40oz water bottle in a couple of hours. When I’m not streaming, I’ll just focus on whatever has caught my interest at that moment and forget I need water to survive.

Due to some scheduling fuckery, Shawshank is off for four days straight. There’s rumors we might go out for a drive sometime, which will be nice. We also have to pull some boxes out of the garage at Shady Acres and bring them up to the secondhand shop’s donation shed. Since I have a bunch of days off in a row, I plan to bleach and dye my hair. It’s only been at least a month since I said I would do it. My roots are looking awful. He’ll do the laundry today, and we’ll relax for the rest of the week.

[Current Mood | drained ]

[Listening To | WWE Raw ]

Hello, world. I’m here… just a little late. I woke up feeling a little off, not much off, but just not right. Three cheers for unregulated body temps! I got up with Shawshank around 5:30, because I was awake anyway. He made me a coffee, and I got through about half of it before deciding I was going to take a hot shower, and then go back to bed. When I dried off, Shawshank made the bed and set up my pillows in the middle so I could fold myself into a ball, gave me a Gravol, and left for work.

And there I stayed.

At this point, I’ve dealt with this enough times to know what works and what doesn’t. Getting under the blankets is too much for me in most cases, but a bathrobe is good. It’s like a Chinese finger trap toy, trying to fight it only makes it worse, so I try to sleep through as much of it as I can. After he left, I dealt with a couple of temperature “cycles”, waking up to feel like shit, switching positions, and dozing again. I took shower numero dos just before lunchtime, popped another Gravol, grabbed my sleep headphones to have something to fall asleep to. Podrick climbed on top of my chest and stretched out. I napped for another three hours, waking up with Pod curled up next to me.

Shawshank filled me with bread and butter and canned chicken noodle soup. With the rest of the week off, I’ll recover nicely.

[Current Mood | drained ]

[Listening To | how much longer will soccer be on? ]

Happy Sunday, y’all, and it is indeed sunny this morning. I’m sure Shawshank has a morning picture of it.

Yesterday was busy. We were up early to help set up for the yard sale over at Shady Acres. Their house went on the market last week, and they’re downsizing hard. They had a bit less out for sale because they thought it was happening next week, but they’ve always planned to have a second sale later in the summer. Shawshank and I dragged things out of the garage while his mom handled merchandising. Once we had her set up, I set up my rack of pants.

A bunch of junk was taken right away by some resellers in a neighboring town, mostly shit that probably wouldn’t have sold anyway. Shawshank grabbed a bungee cord to tie my clothes rack to a truck, and we went for a walk to check out some of the sales in the neighborhood.

I picked up a massive embroidery hoop, an 18″x27″ oval. I have no idea what to put in it, but Shawshank‘s mom gave me two books of embroidery stitches, with one being just floral motifs. I half want to do a big, retro folk-art looking thing, with roosters and hearts or something, and I half want to do a large floral piece that says something subversive in the negative space. I’ll figure it out after I finish the kit I’m currently working on…

… and the other two kits in the drawer…

… and (maybe) the one I transferred onto fabric (twice) last week.

His mom wanted to pack things up 45 minutes into the sale, but we told her she could absolutely not pack shit up three hours early. I sold four pairs of pants. We turned right around and spent that money on bird seed and lunch. Shawshank‘s dad came out and sat in the garage, selling man stuff. He sold a bunch of his bigger tools, plus the ride-on mower. I managed to throw out one box of things that didn’t sell, and we’re going back over there later this week to bring a bunch of boxes up to the secondhand store’s donation shed.

Shawshank has decreed we are not getting dressed today. We’re having brunch, and burgers, and in between we will do nothing productive.