Just wanted to apologize for being so whiny the past few days.  I feel like Ritsu from Fruits Basket: "I'm sooo Soooorrrry!!  I apologize to the whole world!!"

(Actually, I was kinda poking around the interwebs for a Ritsu icon, because I do get that way from time to time, but I didn't see one that quite took my fancy.)

Cool and rainy today.  Heavy rain, too, so I can't stay online long.  I went and got my blood test done--doctor is supposed to call with results either today or Monday, so I need to tote my phone along.  I went to Mass at St. Mary's afterwards (if I ever needed to go to Mass, NOW is the time!).  Actually, just going into that church always cheers me up.  It's just so lovely.

Mom just called--she just woke up.  Bob's folks are still asleep.  I've been up since about 4 am.  Maybe I'll take a nap since it doesn't look like they'll be showing up for a couple of hours yet.

Bob's folks wanted to see the Cathedral, but it's not looking likely.  There's a wedding tomorrow and the staff is working on prepping the sanctuary.  I left a message for them to call me, just in case, but odds are, it's no go. 

We may all just end up hanging out here and playing Joker.  Joy.

Enjoying a bit of quiet time before the parents come in again.  Bob's folks are due to arrive this afternoon and then we'll be juggling all of them for the next three days.  Bob's folks are leaving Sunday afternoon and I believe my folks are leaving sometime on Monday.

These visits remind me why I'm so much of a recluse. It's difficult for me to be around people so much.  I feel like I have to watch everything I say and do, and if I let down my guard even for a moment, disaster strikes.  I don't mind meeting up with friends for a few hours to go out for some entertainment, or even a daytrip, but I definitely need my space!

I have some things I want to see to once everyone heads home.

1.  Straighten my office.  I've got books stacked all over the place right now and I need to put those back on the shelves and get the place in order again.  I foresee another culling--my shelf-space is looking kinda slim again.

2. Sort through my clothes.  Between the stuff Mom brought me and the swag I've picked up from thrift stores lately, I really need to dig out everything from my closet, figure out what fits, box up the stuff that doesn't and store it*, box up the winter clothes and store those and organize the summer/early autumn clothes so that I can find things easily.  I should probably do that for Bob and his closet as well, but that will require having him there to try on things so I know what fits him now.

*Normally, I'd just donate outgrown clothes to charity, but my weight has been fluctuating wildly up and down over the past two years.  I've got clothes in three or four sizes now and I'd prefer to not have to buy yet more clothes until the weight stabilizes.

3. Get back on regular writing schedule.  I've been using my illness as an excuse to not do anything, but after some conversations with my folks and with some people I know from church who have encouraged me, I want to try a new approach.  Yes, there are days when my concentration is very, very bad and on those days, the quality of my writing will probably be poor.  But if I can maybe work on an outline on those days, or do a background character sketch, or anything else to advance my projects, I'll be making progress and that's what counts.  I keep setting these goals which might be realistic to some people but are overwhelming to me. That's not working: my abilities and restrictions are not the same as some other person. Judging myself using someone else's guidelines is counterproductive.

4. Get back to regular Japanese language study.  Again, something that got set aside due to illness.  I know I have bad days where I won't retain knowledge, but if I just take an hour every day and just sit down and practice, surely something will stick.  I have plenty of old textbooks with exercises to practice with. 

Also, I think I've been slacking with #3 and #4 because my office is in totally disarray right now and I just can't concentrate in this mess!  So by accomplishing #1, #3 and #4 can advance!

5. Exercise!  I'm doing a bit, just gotta keep going and keep adding on.  It's tough--my knees and ankles are swollen so bad!  Wish I could afford to join the YMCA to use their swimming pool, but that's not possible right now.  Not so much the cost of membership--it's the ability to get over there.  The Dubuque Y isn't that far from where we live, but since we only have one car, it's tricky trying to schedule around everything else.  We've been kicking around the idea of getting a second car again (and even looked around a little), but the economy is just too soft right now.

Taking another blood test tomorrow: there was a thyroid abnormality that showed up when I had my physical last month, so more tests are being done now.  If there is a problem there, that might explain a LOT.  Just have to wait and see on that. 

We were very busy running around yesterday.  Went over to Dickeyville (about 7 minutes across the River over in Wisconsin) to a butcher shop there (forgot name, will get later) that has excellent meat sticks, cheese, summer sausage and the like.  Actually, I don't each much of that (irritates my stomach), but Bob LOVES it and so do my folks.

While we were there, I finally got to see the Dickeyville Grotto, a precious, kitchy piece of Americana.  A priest there in the early 20th century decided to build a shrine made of found materials--shells, glass, stones, fossils, whatever.  And it just grew and grew.  The folks here at the Cathedral told me it was tacky, but I thought it was absolutely charming.  Took several pictures which I will post later when I have time to get them on my computer and resize them.

They also had a gift shop (yay, postcards!) and a garage sale in the basement.  Since Mom was there, with her mighty shopping karma, I found three really nice sweaters for $1.50/each and Bob found a pair of steel-toed insulated work boots for $4.  If you looked at the sizing in the boots, they would be too big for him, but he tried them on and they fit perfectly.  The Church Ladies told us that a parish member had bought the boots thinking they were his size and found out they were mislabeled, so he just donated them yesterday.  Boots like that usually run between $40 to $60 minimum.  (Bob needs to wear steel-toed shoes to work because he often has to haul heavy equipment around.)

Lunch was at the Mystique Casino (formerly the Dubuque Greyhound Park and Casino).  They still race greyhounds there as far as I know.  I hate gambling and casinos, but Bob said the buffet there is very reasonably-priced (it was) and the food was good (yes).  The music was annoying. 

After that, we were off to look at potential properties.  My Dad is thinking about buying some land to park their Airstream on up here during the winter (rather than storing it).  One of the guys from our Cathedral choir, Loras, is a real-estate broker, so he agreed to take us around some properties.  Due to housing codes, it's hard to find a nice place to park an RV close to the city, so all the sites we looked at were down in Jackson county, south of here.

The day ended with a game of dominoes.

More later, must go.  Today we look at more property.

Apologies to the list if you see this more than once--just passing the word along!

via gurdymonkey:  Professional musician Dave Carroll, of the Sons of Maxwell band, had his $3,500 guitar broken by United Airlines, who refused to take responsibility for it and cover his loss.  So he vowed to write three songs about the experience and share them on the Internet.  The whole story is here at his site.

Here is the first video:



I actually like this song.  It's kinda catchy. 

I did finally get a little sleep: about five hours.  Enough to recharge the batteries for awhile anyway.  May try to sneak in a nap later.

Schedule today is all up in the air.  Everything depends on what happens with Dad at the Chevy/GM dealer.

There's an old quilt project that I started and set aside (10 years ago--has it been that long???) that Mom and I are debating about what to do with.  I started the quilt during a class I was taking when Bob and I lived in Des Moines, but I had to quit the class when my job made me start working mandatory overtime due to a big project the department had taken on.  Then we moved and I kinda stored everything away and mostly forgot about it.

I can sew a little, but I'm self-taught and not very good.  I have learned to make some period garb (mainly by trail and error, via very detailed instructions on the internet and in person), but there are a lot of the basics that I never learned.

Quilting doesn't have to be difficult per se, but it is very precise and it helps if you have people around who know what they are doing.  Mom has gotten into quilting pretty big in the past couple of years since she moved to San Antonio and has a group of ladies she works with on that.  There are several local guilds here but the few times I've met local crafters, they've been kinda snotty (Iowans are NOT friendly to outsiders.  Period.)  Plus, I admit I tend to a touch of paranoia, which doesn't help.

So we're debating whether it would be better for me to try to finish the quilt up here or for Mom to take it down there and work on it with her group.

On one hand, it's my design--well, I picked the pattern and fabrics (it's a collage of ukiyo-e bijin prints, to be bordered by strips of rose calico and black)--and I tend to be more of a perfectionist (Mom says "persnickety") when it comes to sewing.  Seam isn't straight?  Rip that sucker!  Do it again!

OTOH, Mom has more energy than I do right now (being that I'm sick) and she has a network of friends in place who can help out.  But she's the type that will let a mistake stand rather than bother to take the time to make it right, which drives me up the wall.

If it was just finishing the quilt according to the pattern in the book, that would be one thing, but when I started the quilt, we had a queen size bed.  We now have a king size bed and therefore adjustments need to be made, and that kind of calculation means that we need to consult people who have more experience.  Or else not worry about the thing fitting the bed properly.

Of course I will dither about all this for a few days until the folks leave and we have to make a decision.  So will Mom.  Where do you think I get that trait from? ;-D

Two birthdays, actually!  All the best to bwinter (are you still partying it up in Japan?) and belated best wishes to aardy!!

I hope great things are coming up for both of ya'll in the next year!

Okay, so I've mentioned these headaches that have occurred ever since I started taking the anti-manic (Topamax) med, right?  I had them when I was on this medication before, some five years ago.  They do finally go away after about six weeks (I suppose the body adjusts), but until then, it's pure misery.

(btw, one of the off-brand uses for Topamax is treatment of migraines.  Yeah, go figure.)

However, this morning, I think I figured out WHY the headaches are being triggered.

I'd been up all night due to taking an anti-migraine med too close to bedtime.  The headache med did what it was supposed to do, but it also left me wide awake for way too many hours.  Staying awake for too long is dangerous for people with bipolar disorder because it can trigger a manic episode, and those are very difficult to stabilize.

This morning I went to change out a load of laundry.  It was not long after dawn.  As I carried up the clean laundry to our bedroom on the second floor, the light came streaming in from the east-facing windows along our stairwell and hit me right in the eyes.

Instant migraine.  It felt like someone had stabbed me in the right eye.

What is one of the side effects of Topamax?  Sensitivity to light and sensitivity to the sun.  Couple that with another medicine I take which also makes me sun-sensitive (to the point that I get a rash if I'm outside on a bright day for very long without a hat/sleeved shirt), and you can see where there might be an issue.

My mom likes things bright, so she when she came over, she opened curtains in our windows that we usually keep shut and turned on extra lights which Bob and I usually only use when we need to read or see where we're walking.

I dragged out my sunglasses and wore them in the house today.  I felt like an idiot, but it helped. 

Not a perfect cure, but it should be a decent stop-gap measure until my body adjusts to the medicine.  Also, IIRC, last time, I started the medicine in winter, when it tends to be cloudier around here.  And when the folks head back home, we'll go back to shutting the curtains and keeping the lights low like before.

Bob has started calling me Vampire Girl.  Silly man. :-P

I feel better having figured this out, though.  Anything to do to help the situation is a step in the right direction. 

So after a night of absolutely no sleep (for me, anyway), my Dad dropped my Mom off by our house while he went to get some repairs done on his truck.  Mom needed to get some more of their laundry done (they'd had no chance to get to a laundrymat while they were camping in Madison).  That was all well and fine, but we got into it when I found her trying to hang wet clothes (the kind that you don't put into the dryer or they'll shrink) on clotheshangers off of piping holding electrical wires in our basement.

( No Hangers on Wires! )

Then she tried to set fire to my kitchen.

( Fyre, fyre! )

( Don't Mess with The Man! )

( Mr. G has his own trials )


With me so far?  All this drama.  Me <-- no sleep.  At all.  Nerves started acting up.  Stomach went ballistic.  Got sick after lunch.  Skipped dinner due to lack of appetite.

Hoping to have a calm evening tonight and very much hoping to get some sleep.  I'll try to have a piece of bread or something simple.  If I can get some rest, I'll be able to handle things better tomorrow.  I love my folks, but they seem to thrive on chaos and that certainly is hard on Bob and I.

Something positive though.  Tsuki finally came downstairs on her own to see my parents.  She even played with my Dad some.  He was enchanted.  She's still kinda skittish, but she showed real progress today and I'm very proud of our littlest kitty.  The other cats were also on their best behavior today.  Maybe I'll give them an extra snack tonight.

The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian bible have been digitally reunited according to this AP article via Yahoo news. 

The Codex Sinaiticus is now available online, thanks to scholars in Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt who worked together on the project.  Go take a look!  The server is probably getting hammered, so the images may take a while to load, but it's worth it.

I poked around a bit in the books of Tobit and Esther and of course, had my calligraphy geekgasm looking at all those lines of neatly lettered text.

No sleep.

At all.

@_@

I've started and deleted no less than four entries.  Thank goodness for Semagic, which lets me read over things before I post.  As it is, I did end up giving a rather snippy answer to a question on SCA_JML about someone wanting to be a geisha. *rolls eyes*  I should have just waited and let someone with more tactful answer.  gurdymonkey, please feel free to administer the smackity-fan at will.

I await my online beating with humility.  But I do stand by what I said.  What is wrong with having an ordinary female persona?  There were all kinds of fascinating women in Medieval Japan.  Alas, we may only be able to catch a glimpse of their true selves, and certainly their menfolk are much better documented, but that doesn't mean that these ladies are without interest.

The headache is still gone, which is good.  Maybe I should just take more Excedrin this morning, stay up all day, and try to get back to sleep at the regular time tonight?  OTOH, that may send me bouncing off the walls. Er, more so than I already am.

Dad intends to run some errands and get some work done on his truck.  Mom was going to hang out at the house with us and watch some TV shows that I recorded for her.  I have to do some laundry today, but that's about it.  Although he's on vacation this week, Bob needs to stay close to home because he may get called back into work because of an inspection going on at the airport.  The inspection starts today, so he thinks that if they have questions, today's the day they would call him in. 

I've been battling a headache all day.  It's a side effect from the new medicine (Topamax) that I'm taking.  The same thing happened the last time I took this stuff--constant headaches for about six weeks until my body adjusted.  Usually, if a headache gets real bad, I just try to lay down in a dark room or something, but since my folks were here, I was trying to be social.  Finally, I broke down and took some migraine headache Excedrin at about 8:30 pm.

Which worked, btw.  I'll give it to Excedrin--if you have a headache, Excedrin usually does the trick.  The problem is that it uses massive amounts of caffeine to do it.  Which is not something you want to take that late at night.  But of course I didn't think of that before I popped those pills.

Oh, yes, it's midnight and I'M NOT TIRED AT ALL.

Looks like I'll be up for awhile tonight.  And no promises on how cognizant I'll be tomorrow!

First things first:  there are baby bunnies in the neighbor's yard!!!  We were making dinner tonight and I went to open the window (we don't have an exhaust and our kitchen ceiling fan broke this spring).  I looked down and saw a rabbit in the yard, which wasn't unusual, but then I saw a couple of tiny bunnies nursing!  There was a little burrow there with four or five bunnies in it (Dad counted six).  They were so darling!  I went over to tell our neighbor Shelley about them so that her son wouldn't run over the burrow when he mowed their lawn.  We do occasionally see rabbits around here, even though we live near downtown, but this is the first time I've seen bunnies! 

My folks have spent the past couple of weeks over in Madison, Wisconsin at the annual Airstream RV get-together.  Madison is only about an hour and a half drive from Dubuque, so they got here pretty early this morning.  Fortunately, we figured this would be the case and went to the vigil Mass last night so that we would be available if they came in earlier than expected.

( Here They Come Again )

I have absolutely no idea what we're supposed to be doing tomorrow. 

Via rkold

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me"
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the questions and the answers to the questions in your journal.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.

( Rachel's Questions for me )

British character actress Mollie Sugden passed away yesterday at the age of 86.  She was probably best known over here in the US for her role as Mrs. Slocombe in the Britcom Are You Being Served?, which played on a lot of PBS stations here in the US.

I thought she was hilarious.  We have a box set of all the Are You Being Served? episodes (and the sequel series as well--Are You Being Served? Again!), which just tells you what geeks we are.  The show is incredibly dated and the humor is that coy type that was used back in the day, but it never ceases to amuse.

She came to visit Iowa a few years back (okay, several years ago) to do a promotion for our state PBS station in Des Moines and I think she was surprised at how popular she was here in rural America.

Happy Canada Day!

What exactly do ya'll do on Canada Day, besides sleep in?  Fireworks?  Parades?  Cook-outs?

At some point, I really need to get up to Canada again.  I went up a couple of times back in the 1990's for SCA events up in Ontario, but didn't really get a chance to look around properly.  I'd like to visit Vancouver and Toronto someday.  Something that might be more do-able is the Lake Superior Circle Tour.  I'm sure my folks would let us borrow their RV and it's not that far of a drive to get to a starting point there--I think Duluth is maybe 7 hours from Dubuque or so?  But we'd have to update our passports.

Our own American Fourth of July is coming up.  We don't have anything planned since my parents are coming back in on the 5th and Bob's parents are coming for a few days on the 9th.  There's usually this huge fireworks display over the Mississippi River here in Dubuque (which we never go to because I hate crowds and noise).  That's actually going to happen on the 3rd.  Have to remember to stay in to avoid the traffic.

Yes, I should be sleeping right now, but I still have an upset stomach. I must have given myself food poisoning with that chili. Stupid me. :-P

I had one of those "He Who Hesitates Is Lost" moments this evening.

First, I should explain something about myself: it is very difficult for me to make decisions, even about simple matters that most people would find straightforward. I literally agonize over small choices. I'm not kidding. It drives Bob crazy sometimes. People make fun of me because I always choose the same items when I go to certain restaurants, but that is so that I don't spend twenty minutes debating the merits of every other item. No, really. This is one of the issues I work on with my therapist.

I know there are many opportunities that have passed me by because I couldn't make a decision quickly enough. I try not to let it bother me, but honestly, sometimes my dithering makes me feel like such an idiot.

Anyway, a few days ago, I saw on one of my newsfeeds that Ichiban Kan, an online store that sells bento items and other misc Japanese doohickeys was closing their online store. They will continue doing business in their regular stores, which are in San Francisco and a couple of other towns in California that I don't recognize. It's a real pity that they are closing their online shop because they had the best prices online for bento items.

Bento is actually one of those things I admire from afar, being that I suck at cooking. I can make halfway-decent onigiri, but that's about as far as my Japanese culinary skills extend. I do have both a modern bento box set and a traditional one (plastic that looks like lacquer). In a fit of ambition a few years ago, I picked up a number of English-language Japanese cookbooks on Ebay, including a couple on bento, but I'm afraid I haven't done much with them, beyond reading through them and panicking because I just can't cook that well. Actually, I finally turned around and sold the two bento cookbooks back on Ebay after two years went by and I realized that I really wasn't going to use them, although I've kept the other ones, just in case I grow a backbone. They're growing dusty along with all my other cookbooks on my kitchen bookshelf. (Don't cry for me, blogosphere. The truth is I got a good price on the cookbooks because the seller was getting rid of stuff from his parents' estate and sold the cookbooks in two lots. IIRC, the price worked out to $2.50 per book.)

But a girl can dream, right?

Anyway, when I heard about Ichiban Kan, I went over to their site to see if there was anything that caught my eye. Alas, we have been spending too much money lately, so although I saw a few things I liked, I decided (after my usual dithering agony) not to get anything. I'm sure Bob would have let me if I asked, but I thought about my bento boxes sitting in the cabinets and my cookbooks gathering dust on the shelves and decided against it.

There especially was a few tenugui (cotton hand towels) with cat designs that were delightful and were selling for $1.50 to $5.00. I have some tenugui around that I've gotten as gifts and I adore them. They are a useful size and the prints are absolutely darling. However, I let the opportunity pass me by.

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!

I went to look again at the Ichiban Kan site today and those particular tenugui are gone...sold out, I'm sure. There are some on the site still but the designs don't appeal to me. What struck me as funny was that I just saw the SAME DESIGN of tenugui being offered on Ebay for $25!!! Heck of a markup there. I'm kicking myself for not picking those up when I saw them--they weren't expensive and I really liked the design--enough so that I went back to see if they were still available a few days later.

Doing a little checking around online, it's remarkable how English-speaking sites jack up the price of tenugui. For example, check out this Japanese-language site, Hamamonyo. The majority of these tenugui cost about 840 Yen, which converts to about $8.68. English-speaking shops are charging $15 to $25 for the same designs, and that's not including shipping! Outrageous! Of course, that Japanese site probably only ships to Japan, but still...

At one time, you could find tenugui cheap on Ebay, but that was before the sellers figured out that there was a market for them. So much for that outlet. And that's not something I'm likely to find in thrift shops or garage sales here in wilds of eastern Iowa, Land Of White People.

There's still a couple of cute things I'd like on Ichiban Kan that I totally do not need but might try to talk Bob into letting me buy. Fortunately, none of them are expensive, but if I want to get them, I probably need to move quickly before they're gone for good. I like the little cat coin purses and pencil cases, and there's a mouse pad design I like. (Right now, the one I'm using is a fugly freebie that Bob picked up at a convention two years ago.) There are a couple of furin (windchimes) I wouldn't mind, but considering I already have two furin hanging up in my office right now, that probably won't pass.

I made chili this afternoon for lunch.  Unfortunately, I think I added either too much chili powder or too much minced garlic, because I am in massive pain now.  Although I thought it tasted fine when I ate it.

This is why I don't cook for other people.

Must go and be sick again.  Blargh.

(Please forgive me as I indulge two of my passions: Japanese and Catholicism)

For future reference:

( Ave Maria )

( Pater Noster )

( Apostle's Creed )

Still looking for a version of the Nicene Creed.  I found an online romanji copy of an Anglican Book of Common Prayer, but not Catholic.  Most of my friends who were living in Japan have since moved back, but I do know a couple of people who still go back from time to time.  I wonder if a local church would have a prayerbook for sale?  (Push comes to shove, I could dig around on Amazon.jp next time I do an order, but that's going to take some digging.)

No, my Japanese isn't that great--I can follow about half of this: enough to get the basic meaning.  But I wanted to get it down in one place so I would remember.

X-posted on Raphael's Wages.

Took a roadtrip over to Dyersville (25 miles away) to attend the Latin Mass over at St. Francis Xavier Basilica.  You can read about it here on my Catholic blog if you are so inclined.

Peaceful week ahead.  Parents are in Madison and we don't expect them back in until July 5th.  The house is already clean enough, so no worries there.  I probably need to sort through my clothes, since the temperature looks like it's going to be in the moderate range for most of the week.  I'd like to box up my winter/early spring clothes and sort out any of my summer things that don't fit.  I don't think I'll give them to charity just yet--I plan to lose some weight, so hopefully I can fit in them next summer (or even better--maybe they'll be too big!).

New vice: Appolonia's Pizza.  Cooked in a wood oven, handmade crust, herbs, SO GOOD!!!  Alas, too pricy to eat often.  Actually, probably a good thing since I'm trying to lose weight.  Their salads are awesome as well.

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both passed away yesterday. They were both huge cultural icons while I was growing up.

I liked Farrah in Charlie's Angels (and that red swimsuit poster really was EVERYWHERE during the late 1970's), but she kinda faded quickly after that. As for Michael Jackson, I was never a big fan, but I did like him when he was singing with the Jackson Five and he did have some great songs in the early 1980's. A lot of my friends in high school absolutely adored Michael, but I liked the Punk/New Wave music more than Pop.

Both of them had pretty spectacular meltdowns and I felt a little sorry for them, although not too sorry because at least they had the money to throw at the problem, whereas so many people suffer similar problems and can't buy their way out of it.

I often note when some of my old favorite movie stars pass away, but most of these people are my parents' age or older. Michael and Farrah are different because I can actually remember their glory days. And with their deaths, I've lost part of my childhood.

I guess it is a natural part of growing older. So this is what middle-age feels like, huh?