I have weird dreams.

Early this morning, my last dream was of myself trying to lead a troup of devil duckies against the Canadians (hey, guys, I have nothing against you, it was a dream! Really!). Problem was, I didn't speak enough French to direct them. So instead they ended up pounding their heads against a wall.

I blame Second Life.

Last night I ran a short "game" with breimh and one other player in our Star Trek setting. The general setting was that the team was on an away mission to survey a planet deemed non-hostile and having no sentient inhabitants, while the ship went on to check out a stellar anomaly. I was the "game master", as trying to participate in active RP is difficult for me.

I chose one of the hologram settings, a "mystic forest". It was a small room with trees, mushrooms, vines and a pond. I used some animal objects as stage props. One of these included a little animated duck that would move away from anyone approaching it. One included a small cow that one could ride, but when I tried it, I crashed the cow. (I really have trouble controlling vehicles in SL, they move too fast, but saying I crashed a cow is really oddball, isn't it?)

The RP was awkward and very clipped. The characters were attacked by an avian that poisoned breimh's character. It's called an Evil Chicken. When I place it in the scene it attacks the nearest person. Then after a few seconds it deletes itself.

So the characters were attacked, and one poisoned, by a chicken. I had set up a warning; one deer object I had came out on it's side - a placement problem that was fortuitous. I put a chicken on top of it. I only brought out the evil chicken when breimh approached the other chickens I had out. ;)

It was an odd game, and brought on the odd dream. ;)

Oh, and anything from that devil duckie link above would make a great stocking stuffer for me for Christmas. ;)

Don't you think devil duckies and chickens would make great minions for chibithulu?

I currently own and use a Hello Kitty sports bottle. It has a wide enough mouth to fit ice cubes from our home tray, it has a small enough "foot" to fit into my car cup holders, and it has the sports bottle top for one-hand/lip opening and closing.

I own a Hello Kitty lunch bag, a nice roomy square one that's insulated. I've used it in the past when my meals were usually leftovers.

I now own a Hello Kitty thermos. Not a huge one, just enough for about one small serving of soup.

I also own a set of Hello Kitty plastic storage containers. One is big enough to hold a sandwich, the other a small serving of nuts, pudding, applesauce, fruit, whatever.

The only thing I'm missing is a set of Hello Kitty silverware, and possibly a set of chopsticks.

From the asian store I can get Hello Kitty packaged foods, generally treats.

One of these days, if I get the utensils, I'm going to just drive my co-workers nuts. ;)

Yesterday and a little bit today, the weather has been wet and cold. I love it in some ways, but...

This morning... in the wee hours after midnight, my sciatica began flaring up. And my arthritis in my neck. I would turn in bed to try to ease the discomfort in my low back/hips, and my neck would ache. I would turn again, but my sinuses would back up. I would turn again, and there would go my back.

I felt like rotissery chicken.

I had anxiety dreams about work and the pain in my back.

At 3:15am I gave up and called out from work. I went out and iced up my back for a little while, then took some pain killers and went back to bed.

I slept restlessly until about 10am. I got up, iced up again, and tried to remain reasonably active for the rest of the day, while icing up at times.

By evening, my sciatica had subsided. My neck still hurts, and there's still an ache in my hips, but I'll survive.

briemh and I did do one thing outside: we checked my headlights. My drivers side lamp keeps going out, but will come back on most of the time when the hood slams down. We've determined it has to be a loose wire somewhere, but we can't figure out where. *sigh* Another car issue. Hopefully I will be able to coax it to work in the morning so I don't get ticketed on the way to work.

No, it isn't one of those bizarre holidays.

Back in July, when nylima proposed bringing my younger brother to my apartment for some much-needed family time, and said dinner would work best, I asked her, "What do you want me to serve?"

Based on a recent discussion, she looked at me with puppy-dog eyes (which I told her to put back immediately) and said, "Egg gravy on waffles?"

I had to laugh, but she was serious.

Technically, you could call the dish creamed eggs. It's a staple that my mother used to make, based off of army meals. Yes, it was Sh** on a Shingle, for breakfast. It's a dish that nylima, my brother and I all grew up with at my family's place. nylima's mother would make it too.

So, I agreed. I would add sausage to the old staple, a new twist I've been doing lately, making it country gravy with eggs. Creamed eggs and waffles would be easy enough to prepare and inexpensive.

As time passed, the guest list grew and changed. Everyone who was planned to attend liked the idea of the menu. Then I started to think about dessert. When I came up with it, everyone laughed, but agreed.

It was to be cinnamon waffles with ice cream, fruit and/or chocolate syrup.

Waffle Day!

So, this is how we planned things for yesterday. breimh and I cooked up the waffles in the morning, to be re-toasted later. The rest would take no time at all.

The guests arrived and we all sat down to chat. Discussion ranged from Star Trekkiness (I watched as longtail and sethtriggs's eyes glazed over) to sethtriggs webcomic and the characters therein (while my brother's eyes glazed over... he doesn't read webcomics).

Around the dinner hour, I got to work. I don't recall ever making the dish for such a large group, and at longtail's request, I made a portion without sausage. I was a bit concerned about the timing of serving, as we were toasting up the waffles at that time, but everything came together satisfactorally.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. My brother mentioned that it was probably one of the best kinds of meals to make, as it was so simple. I mentioned that I don't know why I never served it to the game group on Fridays.

longtail asked for the recipe. I mentioned that I never really followed a recipe. It was a simple meal. nylima and my brother pointed out how it was made, and longtail said she could figure it out from that.

For those of you who are adventurous, and don't need exact amounts, here's how it's made:

1. Boil 2 eggs per serving. Slice thinly (use an egg slicer for best result).
2. In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, make a simple roux out of butter or margarine and flower. (Melt the margarine and then add flour. Combine the two thoroughly in the pan. Cook until it starts to brown, but don't overcook it. Add milk gradually, letting the mixture thicken to desired consistancy.)
3. Season to taste. I usually add a little salt, pepper, and a tablespoon or so of onion powder.
4. Stir in the eggs.
5. You can add other ingredients as you like. Sausage is a frequently used meat, or you could add ham in small dices, or even your favorite veggies.
5. Serve over toast, waffles, corn bread, or whatever "shingle" you choose.

My father and brother and I have a sweet tooth addition - a little honey drizzled over the shingle either before or after the creamed eggs are added. Yes, it sounds odd, but that's our family - our favorite way to eat plain white rice is with butter and sugar! ;)

The dessert was store-bought cinnamon waffles, but we put real, home-made low-sugar (made with splenda!) ice cream on top. The ice cream was pretty soft, as we'd only made it a couple hours before and it hadn't gotten the chance to firm up, but no one complained. We had frozen strawberries, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream for toppings.

I think everyone got pretty full. :)

We didn't have much time after dinner to continue chatting, as the trip home was pretty long for some of the guests, and the primary driver.

Today, breimh and I are working on STARFLEET Academy quizzes. I have the Flight Operations test to go over (not simply a true/false or multiple choice test, but a fill in the answer and explain, then do a short discussion piece), and I should try more of the online tests.

This afternoon, breimh and I will be hosting nylima, longtail, sethtriggs and my little brother Templar for dinner. This will be the first time that most of them have been to the apartment. We've been trying to get at least longtail up here for months. ;)

The day is turning out to be sunny and warm, which worries me a bit. Our living room/dining room tends to warm up a bit with warmer days. We'll just have to hope the copious number of fans we have running will help. That, and the fact that we've done as much prep cooking as we can get away with.

This should prove to be an interesting visit. ;)

This morning on the way to work, I happened to look over my shoulder for a moment.

And man, did it pay off.

There were high clouds filling most of the sky, except for a stretch that followed the horizon line. The sun wasn't up yet, but the clouds were painted in bright pumpkin orange. In the center was a brilliant golden glow.

It was a Kodak moment, which is etched only in my memory, as I was going 60+ miles per hour along the freeway.

The amazing colors followed me to my office, where the clouds overhead were glowing a brighter orange, heading to pink. No camera I own could have done justice to it.

I couldn't help, though, to remember an old poem. "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors' delight." Does this count with orange?

If you don't read the_gneech's journal already go get 'sploded from cuteness.

I'm too lazy to post the video myself. Warning: May Contain Woozles. And cuteness. And potentially artery-clogging pudgy mini-dogs.

It was a long day today. I started early at work, and then worked late. Wednesdays are notoriously short-handed to begin with, and then we had one report out. So I covered.

This meant changes in my evening plans, though nothing critical. However, this afternoon was pretty draining, and traffic on the way home was weather-challenged. It seems people have forgotten, again, how to drive in the rain, and as a result there were numerous traffic accidents slowing things down even at 6pm when I left.

I'm not complaining about the rain, which is heading toward record amounts for this time of year. I like the cooler weather. I sleep better. It won't last though.

On my way home I heard something amusing. One of our local, annual fairs, the Evergreen State Fair, starts tomorrow. On Sunday, August 31st, they are going to attempt to break the World's Record for the most people dancing the Hokey Pokey. ROFL! I almost want to participate in that! ;) I also see that Weird Al is going to be playing, and so is CCR and Bill Engval! GAH! Oh well. Thanks to "loving" parental influence, breimh despises fairs, and so I, who've not seen a full handful of them, can't enjoy them. I don't blame breimh.

Word arrived today from STARFLEET International that our Vessel Registration Request (VRR) has been approved and we are now an official Chapter in Training. Woot!

For the next nine months we will be setting up standard operating proceedures, planning events and setting goals for our ship. Right now we are merely "NX 72707", we need to recruit another four STARFLEET members (or get another four members to sign up) at least, and maintain them, to qualify for full Deployment in May 2009.

We'll be having our first "staff" meeting in September, on the 20th. After this we are planning on going to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Seattle to celebrate our launch, and give our Regional Coordinator a chance to promote breimh to Captain! Whee! At the same time we'll likely award promotions to those qualifying officers within our chapter.

In the meantime, we celebrate in little groups. :)

Today was draining. nylima was feeling under the weather... which started out rainy, by the way... so she stayed home. Our manager returned after a week's vacation... to find herself facing our new high-maintenance customer. I worked at catching up on paperwork while my boss caught up on collections. The manager and I both had to deal with a malfunctioning toilet. Then I crawled home through traffic and a 15 minute line at the grocery store.

I'm surprised I have the energy to be online tonight. But we'd promised people that we would RP with them on Second Life. :)

It was a Monday at work. My desk seemed to pile higher rather than empty out. At least until about mid-afternoon. It's all good now. Almost. ;)

The car behaved swimmingly, though I think it needs a wheel alignment.

Plus, the temps around here have dropped almost 20 degrees, and it's been raining. Ahhh... blessed, blessed coolness.

This evening, breimh and I had a cool dinner of tuna sandwiches, watched "The Squire of Gothos", and then went on to the computers. He's been busy between job applications taking tests at the STARFLEET Academy, and doing pretty well. Sure, a lot of them are simple true/false questions based on various Star Trek episodes, but some involve short or moderate essay responses based on published works from either the RPGs or novels. It's impressive how fast he's going through these.

I, myself, have taken a handful of tests, and done fairly well on them thanks to his help. I'm gradually getting my Gorn expert certification. ;) I'm pretty much going to specialize in Xeno studies, though some other courses will likely help me in my duties as Executive Officer of the USS Aurora.

Recruitment is one matter we have to attend to, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be a problem. My brother has one potential recruit, Silverwolf has another, Saros has two. Plus, we had our Regional Coordinator send us a note about a STARFLEET member who'll be moving into our city from Texas and may become a member of the ship. If they all join up as hoped, we'll have plenty for our deployment next summer.

Did I mention yesterday that when we went to BABW, we got my Cookie monster registerd as "Alstair C Cookie" of Monsterpiece Theater? Or that I named my Nikki Bear (I) Mika? No, I didn't think so.

We were up until after 1:30am this morning on Second Life. We'd gotten a few thousand more freebies a few days ago, and I've been sorting, trying on, and photographing just about everything for my reference. This is my OCD flaring up. I need to file things so I can find them, and need visual reference so I can readily remember them. Why can't I do this with the boxes behind me?

Today I made a nice, big, tortellini salad and we schlepped it southbound to Saros' place for our visit there. The car behaved nicely, and despite the closure of I-405 southbound and having to re-route through Downtown Seattle, we had no problems on the commute either way. While visiting we chatted, watched "The Thief of Bagdad", and generally had a nice, quiet afternoon.

Now we're back home, and spending a bit of time waiting for things to cool a bit more... and yes, I'm once again sorting.

Well, it was twice what I'd planned to pay, because it was more than I'd plannded to have done, but it looks like the car is fixed.

We were up til midnight last night, so breimh and I didn't start out as early as I'd hoped, but we still managed to get the car in before the Saturday rush at the shop. While the mechanics were doing the flush (and the check of the cooling system which they would do while doing the flush - my sneaky way of getting something checked without paying $120 for the diagnostic), breimh and I had a nice breakfast and browsed at the fabric store for material costs, and then glanced at costs at the office supply store.

When we got back the mechanic pointed out that the real problem was my radiator fan. It has 3 relays. A main relay, one for low speed and one for high speed. The main relay was burnt out. Literally. So that doubled the amount I'd planned on paying, but I was not going to go any longer with the overheating problem! I still came out better than I would have if I'd just had them run a diagnostic. Just means some more financial juggling.

We also ran errands on our shopping, and I did get a new Build-a-Bear. Those were budgeted. We ate an early dinner at Alfy's on Broadway, and I found it a pleasant place. Of course it was pretty empty at the time. :) The pizza wasn't bad, and I like their salad bar. We noted that in the future, if we each get salad bars, a shared personal pizza would do us just fine! We weren't able to finish a small pizza between us. Guess we're getting old, huh?

Now we're home and just relaxing before the computers again, as this is the coolest room in the house.

It's HOT.

Okay, some of you may say the low 80's (F) is not hot, but to those of us Pacific Northwesterners, that's hot.

It's hazy out today, and the air quality is suffering.

So's my car. Hopefully tomorrow that will be taken care of.

I left work 2 hours early today to avoid the stop-n-go traffic in the hot weather with the heater at full blast. I nearly melted yesterday, though it kept the car from getting over hot.

We manage, barely, to keep the apartment cool, though we were up a little later than usual last night waiting for it to be cool enough to sleep.

At least it's Friday. Tomorrow we have the car repair and a bunch of errands to do. I'm taking breimh to see Batman too. I'm hoping our errands will keep us 70% in air conditioning. ;)

We had a somewhat unexpected late visit from emerald_scales today, dropping off some items he needed to get rid of, but I could use. He's selling his car, unable to safely drive it anymore (anyone want a 2003 Honda Civic hybrid?), and was passing on some accessories to me. They included several items for an emergency kit, and four relatively unused tires. He's said I could probably exchange the tires for new ones for my car.

It was hot today, and I drove all the way home with my heater up full blast, and my windows down. I got COOKED... but the car didn't heat up too much. Between that and trying to coast more during the stop-n-go stuff seems to help prevent the heatup. But man... I was panting by the time I got home, even with a rapidly melting bottle of ice to sip from.

breimh and I are once again goofing off on Second Life while waiting for the bedroom to cool down enough to be liveable. We've found scores more of free things. Just when I thought I had my inventory under control. ;) He's bought a really lovely Dragon AV... and I'm getting one similar to it. No pictures today. Maybe this weekend there will be more.

Oh, paka? Watch this space. We've found free AV's of Hyenas... ;)

Gah.

Last night I had the most horrid acid reflux attack I've had in a long time, and as a result I didn't sleep much. So I decided to go to work a couple hours late and get more sleep.

The sleep part worked. As a matter of fact, I got out of the house and on the road earlier than I expected. But, as it turned out, it was still too late.

Traffic was bumper-to-bumper 15mph or less for 20 miles of my commute.

My car hated it. For the first time since she'd been running hot, she tipped close to over the red.

So, I rolled down my window and braved the sun (I burn in a heartbeat), and turned up my interior heat to the max, with the high blower. That helped cool the car down. I got back up to freeway speeds about 5 miles from my office, which cooled her down again, but I wasn't happy. I was dreading the drive home!

I had a fair day at work, and when I got the preview of what my paycheck was going to be, I found I'll be able to pay for the radiator flush this weekend, so that's planned for this weekend. Hopefully that'll fix the issues.

The commute home was nerve-wracking, but a combination of having the heat blasting the whole way, with the windows open (I now have a nice, pink shade to my left side), and coasting with the clutch down as much as I could during the slowdowns kept the car from getting too warm. Never even got to the halfway mark.

The best part of the evening, outside of spending more time with dancing AV's on Second Life, and bacon-cheeseburgers for dinner, was that gas prices have dipped below $4 per gallon, and I had a $.40/gallon discount at Safeway thanks to nylima. *hugs her cousin to pieces*

I got back to work today, and quickly caught up with the little bit of paperwork etc waiting for me. My boss and coworkers were happy to see me. At least I think they were.

I stopped at the mailbox on the way in to work and discovered that the Vessel Registration Request forms that were intended to be forwarded to the third person needed for signature before being finally submitted got returned to us because the post office couldn't properly read the address. It turns out we need to re-do the whole paperwork anyhow... *SIGH!* Ah well. We'll get it done, and done right this time.

The commute home was slow in places, and the car did get warm. Not horribly hot though, like yesterday at the airport.

This evening, breimh and I are playing around on Second Life some more. I'm just about done sorting through my copious inventory. I've unpacked some more furry avatars, and now I have a black house cat (a little cartoony), a blue house cat (like the black one), white and black wolves (also a touch cartoony), two red foxes (both cartoony, but one more than the other), a white fox (also cartoony) and a Snoopy AV (VERY cartoony!). I also looked at an "evil little squirrel" which was too ugly for words, and the "ugly kitty", which defies description. Needless to say, I won't be using them! I also tried on a Zebra AV that turned out to be a very cartoony quadraped AV. With the "sexy walk" attachment I have, it's very disturbing to watch move. ;)

Since I had the Bunneh dancing, breimh has pointed out that her body form is the most aesthetically pleasing, so I've edited most of my other body forms to her specifics. The little white mouse, my white house cat, and likely my snow leopard will keep their shapes, but the other furries, including my phoenix, will be altered to that body form.

One activity we both enjoy is taking my AV's down to the club Ari-Sen to dance and take pictures. I did some of that with the little mouse, and I've also done it with the Phoenix now. More pics are in my scrapbook, but here's a sample:



This is the Phoenix without her wings.



This is Tillie, my white mouse, now with her fuschia hair.

No, while my car is a nice sporty model, I'm not talking about that. Or stolen cars.

Today I took eredien and raxvulpine to the airport, and a few dozen yards or more from the departure deck leading to the terminal, traffic slowed to a drag. And my car started getting hot.

It happened very fast, and by the time I maneuvered to a curbside stop, the car was near the red. I stopped the engine, got the ladies and their luggage out, hugged them goodbye, and got back in. I could hear the water in the radiator boiling!

I was fortunate that a police officer was on hand to stop traffic so I could get away from the curb and get up speed. This helped the car cool down.

My boss' husband is of the opinion that I have air in the radiator, and that the bubbles are keeping the water from flowing through the radiator properly. That the car cools down when I'm cruising at freeway speeds or therabout is the actual air current cooling the car.

I need to get the radiator flushed. breimh would be happy to do this if he only knew where on the car to open the radiator, but he's also nervous about trying to get onto his back under the car with his back issues. For me, it just means I get nervous about driving home from work during rush hour traffic. I hope I don't end up being a traffic issue with an overheating car. *sigh*

With breimh between jobs, it's been a difficult matter about hosting our guests. Ordinarily we would have done a heck of a lot more with them, but our funds are so limited! Fortunately, eredien and raxvulpine also have other friends in the area to visit, and are having a great time with them and us.

Today they are out again, so breimh and I are once again just relaxing and playing online. Tonight we'll be eating breimh's curry, or one of his curries. We haven't fed the ladies much, but they have enjoyed what we've served, so far. :)

Tomorrow is their departure for the next leg of their vacation. Then the day after I return to work. My vacation is almost over.

As promised, I called my brother yesterday.

I sang the "Birthday Song"... after the first line he said "You can stop singing now."

I didn't I continued on through... and used his childhood nickname. In full.

I heard laughter in the background. My brother growled, "If you ever use that name again, I'll kill you."

It turns out he was with a coworker/friend, who heard every minute of it.

I think I r ded. ;)

The rest of the day, while eredien and raxvulpine were out with friends, breimh and I attended to household matters, and did some organizing on Second Life.

We had a tasty dinner of veggie chili.

Today, once again, the ladies are off with friends. breimh and I have been playing again on Second Life. I've added a few more pictures to my scrapbook here, some of them somewhat humorous. A few kinda sexy. :)

An example:



This is my little white mouse Avi (Avatar), in 25th Century uniform, looking at the one, small panel on the "USS Aurora" bridge. As you can see, she's a bit too short to reach the buttons. ;)

And there's this:




This is my Latte Bunneh Avi, in one of the silky dance outfits I found... doing a chair dance. *wolfwhistles* Whoops. That was from breimh.

Today is my younger brother's 39th birthday.

I'm going to call him up later today and sing the birthday song to him. Before he's at work, of course.

breimh and I are simply working on stuff online, and doing laundry.

eredien and raxvulpine are going out with friends today, but will be home for breimh's vegan chili.

Oddly, I'm beginning to crave tofu.