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.

And I survive to Friday. Mostly.

Eggplant: Fruit or vegetable? Discuss. ;)

At any rate, I had a dream last night that this morning made me realize something about myself that I've never really known before.

I have a fear of attics. Especially those at the top of narrow, dark stairs.

I have no idea why. I've had dreams in the past where I dreaded ascending to the highest level in large homes, and last night it was a simple access from a single story apartment that worried me. My dreams hint at hiding psychotic killers. Even if the dreams reveal that the folk hiding in the upper reaches of a building are generally friendly and harmful, I'm still anxious.

As far as I can remember, the closest thing to an attic like this I've ever been in was my Aunt Edna's home, just around the corner from the house I spent most of my childhood in. We loved that attic, since she kept a box of toys up there, and we'd go visit just to play with them!

Yet, somewhere, I've developed a fear. I wonder if it's from the few horror films I've encountered. Flowers in the Attic may or may not be considered a horror, but I saw part of it once and forever regretted it.

It made for strange dreams last night that's for sure.

This morning I find myself horribly achy. Not sure why. It's making being at work a real struggle. I'm going to try to stay well watered up, and I've got fruit for lunch. With any luck, the day will go by quickly, and I'll be on my way home before I know it.

The temperature outside is cooler than it has been for a while.

My arthritis doesn't like this, so I ended up with a migrane. Gyuck.

Top it off, my little brother is angery at my cousin, and I've been put in the middle. I hate that. I tried to tell him to address his problem directly to the cause, he refused.

I hate being in the middle.

I don't know what it is, but my back has flared up again. Leaves me too sore to face the drive to and from work, much less the climb of a storey and a half worth of stairs. Urgle.

So, after letting the office know I wouldn't be in, I took something to relax the back muscles and went back to bed.

I woke 5 hours later. breimh had been up for at least three hours.

I didn't do much today. Watched a couple of movies, and after my back eased up, I went on to SL again. Managed to crash the program, too. Peachy.

Had a great dinner though. Broiled steak. :9 Nummers!

Today has gone by... well, fast and slow.

Tonight I'm looking forward to my first sign-in on Star Trek International. Breimh has been nosing around it already today. It aught to be interesting what a full membership provides.

This morning I uploaded a bunch of IMVU pics to my Gallery here, under Geek Stuff and IMVU. At least one of every persona. There's multiples of a couple of them. Vree being one. There's even a very silly face in there. ;)

I'll prolly be doing more photo shots, but I'm going to be working on the "apartment" too.

I didn't mention yesterday that I did talk to my Dad. Not everything is going well there. He's restricted to lifting nothing over 5 pounds, and while he was in the hospital for his back, my mother's colitis, which had been responding to treatment, flared up again because of the work she had to do in his absence. So they are both rather bored, stuck way out in the toolies, and hurting. I feel bad, but especially now, with gas prices so bad, the trip is just too far for me to take. nylima and I, however, are trying to set up a trip with her mom to visit them next month.

On a wildly different note, last week walks_far helped me identify one of the plants at my office, one that has been propigated to several mini versons of itself. It's called "pothos". I've yet to look it up, but I found something amazing today. The "mother" plant, which used to sit on the desk of a retired client service rep, had dropped a branch a couple years ago, which I stuck in water for some time, developed roots, and then put in soil. In all the time it was in water, all it ever grew was roots. I even feared that after it was in dirt, it wouldn't grow any more. But it sprouted another leaf. I was happy! Then the "mother" plant suffered a near disaster when a painting fell on it. I grabbed several of the broken tendrils, and plopped three of them in water. One sprouted roots after two weeks, and another finally showed root last week, but the third I fear, with only one leaf left, may not make it. However, the first one of the three to root has also started sending out a new leaf! It's GROWING! YAAAAY!

He also identified one of Da'al's plants I'm babysitting as a Norfolk Pine. Need to look it up though. I'm not a great green thumb...

We started off fairly early; despite being up a bit late last night. By 9:45, after playing online a bit, we headed over to emerald_scales' place, only to find that he wasn't going with us. He still let us borrow his hybrid, which I really, really appreciated.

So, we ambled down to the ship and picked up walks_far and Da'alrakken. We gave Da'al a lift down to the ferry docks, where the rest of us drove on to the Bainbridge Island Ferry. That was a nice trip, one I haven't been on in decades!

The drive to Sequim was pleasant, interrupted only by a short stop at the 7 Cedars Casino for brunch. We had lots of delicious food, and I finished with a chocolate chip mint pie that was so strong of mint that I swore I had taken a mouthfull of 3 Altoids! I got breimh and walks_far laughing at my outburst about how strong the mint was. Seriously, it was so strong in spots it was bitter.

Unfortunately, chewing most of that delicious food set off my sensative tooth, and for the next three hours I was fighting to get the pain to ease. We lingered at walks_far's home for a little, then headed for the ferry. We had about an hour wait, during which we watched Da'al's ship cruised by on it's first leg of the tour. It's his last trip on that ship before he switches routes.

We got the hybrid back home by about 7:30pm, and we got home shortly after that, after having paid the REAL one-arm-bandit (gas pump) to fill my car. We jumped online, having no appetite (BIG! lunch), and started playing with IMVU.

I forgot yesterday to mention one persona, my Centauri, Zephyr, for Star Trek: Next Gen. Now I've added a Harry Potter World style Witch, Nettie. I've also bought an "apartment" setting that I'll decorate and possibly learn to edit otherwise.

Back to work today. My back is still aching, and my tooth is still bothering me, but it's down to a dull(er) roar.

Tomorrow breimh is going to hang out with the guy I blame for this resurgance of Trek interest. Then in the evening we're supposed to play some "Star Trek: Enterprise Era", using the LUG (Last Unicorn Games) version of the setting with chibiabos, presuming his hand is okay, and mickstover.

Saturday we hope to get together with friends and see "Kung Fu Panda".

Sunday we get emerald_scales and go to pick up walks_far from his cruise and take him home. I got a text message from Da'alrakken saying he and walks_far were up at the Cape Fox Inn at the Circle of Spirits on Tuesday. Hopefully walks_far enjoyed the visit there in Ketchikan, and found things to do and have fun with in Juneau yesterday, and Skagway today. Maybe he saw whales! I'm sure he saw tons of eagles in Ketchikan.

It'll be nice to visit the peninsula again as we take walks_far home. I hope to have time to stop in Port Gamble at the Sunday Market. Depends on how long we linger in Sequim, I guess.

And yes, I'm still playing on IMVU with my Trek images. I did a bunch of pictures with my "Caitian" (or Regulan, depending on which copyright you try not to violate), which included some really funny facial images. I'll try to add them to my IMVU gallery here on LJ.

I was home today because my back flared up even more. Gads, I hate sciatica.

However, I had to avoid lying down in bed, so I sat up most of the day browsing IMVU. It's very sluggish for me because of my video card, but I did find a number of things to put into my wish list. How I'll get them, I'm not sure. After your introductory time, unless you snag others to join, you really don't get credits for free.

breimh did find some of the original "Galactica" uniforms that someone had done up. They look pretty good. So, in addition to the Star Trek stuff, I'm going to put that down as a wish item.

For the record, the icon is a "Caitian" of sorts, for "The Lost Era", or "The Genesis Era" or "The Movies Starting With Wrath of Khan Era", whatever you like. ;)

There was a Garfield comic strip many years ago, to be found in one of the collected works.

He was hanging on a screen door, griping, "I'm bored, bored, bored, bored, bored."

Then Jon slams the screen open, yelling, "Garfield! Dinner!"

You next see a very smooshed Garfield on the screen moaning, "I'm in pain, pain, pain, pain, pain."

I loved to draw that squooshed cat.

Now I FEEL like that squooshed cat.

I'm being visited by pain in three different regions. As a result, I couldn't face the drive to work, much less the day at work. So I'm at home today. I've done some browsing on IMVU, and we've watched some "Enterprise". Nothing much else.

I've tried very hard to keep positive in my posts lately, but I just need to rant. Feel free to move on to your webcomics, or your next LJ friend...

( It got long, so I cut it. )

Thanks for listening, if you did. If you didn't... well... lessee... happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Kittens. Puppies. Puttins. Kippies. Fuzzy things.

Is it Friday yet?

I tried to call my mother yesterday, but cell phone service where she lives is intermittant, and it would cost them $2000 to run phone lines to their home... so I just hope she got the card. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

I did hear from Da'alrakken, who was just starting out on his 2nd cruise of the season. Turns out the first was pretty good, although Friday, the second "sea day", and 20 foot swells. Man, I'm so glad I wasn't on that cruise!

I did manage to get some of my excess Build-a-Bears up for auction on Ebay. I'm hoping they'll sell. I have a few more lots of those, as well as other toys to sell, but I'm not sure how they'll do. If they sell, that will at least cover my LiveJournal annual fee, and my hosting fee. Other sales may help cover things like my medications and stuff while breimh continues to bust his butt looking for work, and I try to weasel out as much overtime as I can stand.

Right now I'm fairly sure my paycheck, presuming nothing (*knocks on wood*) prevents me from working this week, will cover the rent, but I still have the phone/internet and power bills that need money.

So, if you know anyone who likes monkeys and teddy bears, point them to my auction. Tell them it's a good cause... especially if they believe in helping a struggling couple stay off the street.

Last night was a rough night for me. No resperatory issues, but my neck is bothering me and I kept having anxiety dreams...

breimh and I were observing as we drove in for work this morning that the trend this decade has been to take the old fairy tale classics and turn them darker. Or even take fairy tale-like stories and make them dark. Some really bad. Pan's Labyrinth, for example. We saw this and, while we did overall enjoy it, found it too dark to ever watch again. Bridge to Teribithia is a charming movie, but with a bittersweet ending, which leaves one in tears. The Brother's Grimm casts shadows on the authors of favorite tales (or so I'm told), and even The Spiderwick Tales have their dark side.

In Disney/Pixar's movie Monster's Inc, in a "commercial" for "Monsters, Incorporated", they point out that today's child is very hard to frighten. Having grown up with parents allowing them to see movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and it's ilk, this isn't surprising! Hollywood has to work harder and harder to frighten children.

A far cry from rubberized monsters. I don't know what movie it was, but one of the most frightening films that ever touched me was a blob-type movie, where people at a party ended up going down into a cellar where they were attacked by some sort of rubbery blob. Or an episode on T.V. (whether it was "Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits", I don't recall) where a woman living isolated was invaded and terrorized by little wind-up robots. Those scared the heck out of me, and I had nightmares about them off and on over the years (also using "lucid dreaming" at one time, where I "made" a cellar door available so I could escape onto the street from the blob in the cellar).

And you can't entirely blame Hollywood. The news media has brought the horrors of real life to us in full, living color, with camera crews broadcasting live from war zones and the like. We're more aware, but it's still not quite "real". It's always "someone else", so we may feel sad, or outraged, or whatever, but it still isn't in our own little safety net. Most of the time. So we become desensitized. Does anyone remember, anymore, I mean really, that those statistics we hear are living people, who will never return to our families? Or are we just shaking our heads, saying, "Oh, how sad. Another soldier died."

Not to mention how it's always the "local boys" that we hear about, since we could care less about someone who doesn't even share our state.

I'm not really accusing anyone. I'm just as bad as everyone else. At one point, my own little brother was in a war zone. I got lucky. He came home whole... though it's possible he's suffered health and mental problems. I also know there are people who are keeping it real, and fighting to keep it so. These people I have to tip a hat to.

Anyhow... I'll get off of that little soap box.

The weather here is still being horribly bipolar, favoring the North Pole. We had a thunderstorm yesterday, during which an odd version of hail, being soft pellets, fell for a good half hour or more. In part, this has probably put nylima in bed for the day, if not the week, unless she caught the crud from the boss. The boss still isn't 100% herself.

Me? The neck is doing a lot better. The cold has been bothering me a little, as I've said, and outside of sleeping wrong on my right side last night, making me a bit achey in that shoulder, I'm physically okay. I'm still trying not to be anxious about the whole mammogram thing, but as it's been pointed out frequently, often these things are nothing. Though yesterday, in the news story reporting that Kathy Lee has returned to t.v., they showed her talking about mammograms in a humorous way, and it had me both laughing and cringing. ;)

Oh, and it's new iconage time again.

They're still saying there are chances of snow. Thus far none of it has stuck in any way to be a problem for me... but the cold is affecting my bones, and breimh's as well.

My boss is back in the office today. She's feeling a lot better.

I mentioned last week that I was transcribing some old writing of mine from thermal paper, and said that I may post some of it to katrina_rousse. I mean to follow through, but the first pieces were just joke fax type things, and the third was too badly written... it's a really lame romantic scene between two tertiary characters from my sequel to my main novel.

The fourth piece is actually 32 typed pages long, so I haven't been able to complete it. It, too, is not extremely well written, and it has nothing to do with any of my previously mentioned books, or any I had planned to write. I must have just gotten a really, really hard fantasy-romance bunny bite at some time. The problem is, I started transcribing it just after reading ladyofthemasque's book, The Song, which means my inspiration to write is at a peak... and this story bloody well has potential.

I may post this in sections... I've been contemplating what ways it could be improved (which would include re-naming a race, detailing out the world, or at least the land it's on, and slowing down the sequence of events by adding further content, and replacing some lengthy narrative with a better section including dialog. So... if you want to see it in "the raw", friend katrina_rousse (if you haven't already), reply here to let me know you have so I can friend her back to you (the posts are friends-only), and let me know you want to read my schlock. ;)

It's snowing like crazy outside. Big, sloppy, wet flake clusters... mixed with rain. It's COLD.

We're just settling down after a nice dinner with miladyblue and her roommate/brother (by adoption), Stumpy, and his father, The Rev.. They had forged their way all the way up here to our town to treat us to dinner for our 14th Anniversary, a little late.

We ate at Kyoto, the Japanese Teppan Yaki place that breimh and I have fallen in love with. Poor Rev., who is on a portable oxygen tank and suffering from alzheimers, kept jumping out of his seat every time our cook or any of the others caused the dramatic flare-up of open flame that they so much enjoy doing at places like this. Overall, however, I think everyone enjoyed themselves, and miladyblue and Stumpy said that it was better than the teppan yaki place they knew in their neck o the woods.

At the end of dinner is when we discovered it was snowing like there would never be a spring. While we didn't have considerable accumulation on the vehicles, there was enough that it required the snow squeegies to come out... and then we had to immediately use windshield wipers to be able to see out our windshields! The trio followed us to our apartment, where we spent a nice time chatting without the noise of cooking and other diners. Then we bid them a good night, and prayed they'd get home okay.

Note to self: Next time the internet seems to be out, try restarting the modem.

To my defense, I didn't know the modem could be restarted.

The end result is that we have internet back at home. This is a good thing. Now I have a week worth of web comics to catch up on...

Anyhow... on with the day. If there's any luck, and I feel they're good enough, there may be some vignettes posted at katrina_rousse later today. I'm transcribing things from thermal paper, (like old fax paper), because they won't preserve otherwise.

More later.

Thanks everyone for the upbeat thoughts. I really appreciate it.

I'm a little over-caffeinated this morning, so I'm quite bouncy for now.

I heard from my younger brother yesterday, he needed me to try to relay an urgent message to our parents (I'm not sure if it got through - communication skills aren't really high with them). At the same time I found out that he's working not too far from where breimh works, and if he's amenable, I might be able to get together with him now and then after work. It'd be nice to see him without it meaning a huge commute for either of us!

We still have no home internet connection, but I hope to have that taken care of by the end of the week. We likely will be kindof busy this weekend, getting together with friends and/or family, but it would be nice to be able to check the news if I want to. We're in a radio/tv dead zone where we live.

Last night it snowed in the region. Not where we live, but we were trying very hard, sans internet, to find out what kind of impact it would have on our commute. We had no way to do it. The radio stations we could get in were all either foreign language, canned programming, or national/international news only. The t.v. stations were either on shopping, business news, or celebrity news. I feel like I've lost i.q. points waiting to see if some local news would come on! There's a good reason breimh and I live with DVD's for entertainment!

Amusingly, breimh mentioned that while he was heading in to work on the bus yesterday, he encountered a quartet of guys around 20 years old who were puzzling over 1st Edition AD&D. He gave them some pointers, talked about his experience with the game, and gave them his contact information. He's rather burnt out on high fantasy rpg's, but he'd be happy to go old skool for a little. ;) He's not the only one.

Heh. One of the things I dug up over the weekend from the boxes was a small pouch of mini-dice. I have three full "sets" of dice; d4, d6, d8, d10, d00, d12 and d20, all in a pouch that couldn't hold $20 in quarters. 21 dice in all. It's in my purse. I feel so geeky. The worse thing is, if I carried a magnifying glass, I also have the core rule books for 1st Ed AD&D in fully miniature size and could carry those without much effort, requiring only some scratch paper to run a game. ;) I'm such a GEEK! :D

Anyhow... into the trenches go I. At least the sports fans have tucked back into the woodwork for the time being!

I've been called by the mammography department. They've found something on my mammogram that they thinks warrents further study.

Nothing immediately alarming, but next Thursday I go to a different mammography office to be further examined and appraised immediately.

It's probably nothing, but it is nerve wracking.

I did manage to get some rest yesterday, and a couple of hours worth of reading. This morning, with extra time because of the lack of internet, I finished the book. So, the promised review.

The Song, Book Four of the Sons of Destiny by Jean Johnson, aka ladyofthemasque.

Once again, I have dived head-first into the world of the eight Brothers of Nightfall and spent several blissful hours absorbing the magic that is Jean's storytelling.

In "The Song", readers finally experience the resolution involving Evanor (the fourth-born of the Brothers of Nightfall) and his lost voice. We also meet his Destined bride, Mariel, and her son Mikor. Both characters introduced in the third book, The Master.

One might think that a repetition of a theme, namely "brother meets Destined bride", would grow old by the fourth time, but not in these stories. New and fresh conflicts keep the stories interesting. I was at the edge of my seat, unwilling to put the book down, when the challenge in this book manifested.

Though the story is technically about Evanor, and certainly revolves around his voice dilemma and the challenge of facing not only his Destined bride, but also getting to know her son from her previous marriage. The rest of the brothers, led by the indefatigable Kelly, struggle with finding a substitute for Evanor's magic of the Voice, which allowed communication throughout the Isle, and the threat of conflict with Katan, the nation that exiled the brothers in the first place. Ingenious ideas and unflagging spunk win the day... at least for now!

"The Song", like it's predecessors, is a romantic, heartening and intriguing introduction to more of the mystical world that the Brothers of Nightfall live within. Though it brings resolution to two issues, more challenges still face the growing citizens of the small island. Introduced in "The Song" is a whole new conundrum... to whom shall the new nation turn to as a Patron Deity?

I can't recommend Jean's books enough. Readers will find themselves laughing, biting their nails, crying, and screaming for more before they even reach the final chapter of "The Song". Thankfully, we know we will get more. We've still got four brothers to go, and at least two of them pose such challenges that I eagerly await seeing how the youngest, Morganen, the Mage and Matchmaker, will resolve them!

For the record, if asked WHICH of the Brothers I might prefer, I have to say truthfully that I can't make a real judgement until I read the remaining stories. To date, though, I have to say Wolfer remains my favorite. Honestly, though, if I could get all the brothers molded into one... now THERE is the ideal male.

Mind you... I have as close to the ideal male already. And I'm not just saying that because he's gonna be reading this... maybe. ;) Mine is cuddly, domestic, strong-willed (almost to a fault), and protective. He's also playful, brooding at times, hot blooded, and can sometimes perform miracles. I think that covers the Eight, huh? ;)

Now I move on to Piers Anthony's book, Virtual Mode, which I thought was a sci fi, but the book cover seems to indicate its a fantasy. No matter. I like his work just about either way. I enjoyed Xanth, of course, but I've also read his book, Mute, which is a sci fi (and I need to find and re-read), his Apprentice Adept series (I think I have all 4), and also his Incarnations of Immortality books, though I only own one of those.

After this book, I read the novelization of the Phantom of the Opera. Then, hopefully, I'll be able to buy more of the Xanth books. At least until the next Sons of Destiny book comes out. :D

Oh, and ladyofthemasque, if this review is good, in your eyes, feel free to use it. :)

I woke up this morning feeling nauseous. I called the office, telling them I'd be in later after getting some rest. I went back to sleep, eventually.

When I got up, things were worse. breimh told the office I wouldn't be in.

After getting him on his way to work, I'll be likely going to bed. Later I'll either read some, or try to do some typing. Either way, nothing strenuous.

We still don't have internet connection at home. I hope to have that fixed at the end of the week. Fortunately, we can check our e-mail and LJ at work.

Today wasn't much to speak about. The boss returned after two weeks being out because of a bad cold or the flu, but she still isn't top notch, and she knows it. Chances are, she won't be in tomorrow, or won't be in long.

breimh was in good spirit this morning, but then later had some minor difficulties with a client, and ended up with a minor situational headache. He's hoping tomorrow his usual Tuesday headache will not appear. I hope so too!

Today, now that I've finished the last of the Xanth books I have, I started ladyofthemasque's book The Song. I really am looking forward to this one. So far, its living up to expectations. I'm never dissappointed with her work. I'll post a "review" when I finish. :)