The next time I need to find something totally awesome online, I’ll just have my Number One Internet Fanboy look for it — again, he sent me a kick-ass e-card, from this hilarious site:

SomeEcards

I especially like this card. And this one. And definitely this one!

Their slogan is kick-ass, too: “for when you care enough to hit send” *snicker*

Oregon doesn’t have much of a visible military presence. Still, this is an awesome idea and I’m going to remember to say thank you when I can…

The Gratitude Campaign

And hey, Lyse and Larry and the other vets I love — thank you. *hug*

My wonderful Number One Internet Fanboy sent me an e-card from the best e-card site EVER. There’s something in flavors of Deranged, So Not Okay, and Fraked-Up for everyone at WrongCards.

I’m done with the Dark Ages and moving promptly along through the Middle Ages in my Netflix queue. Then I’ll be watching every documentary on the British royal family that I haven’t seen yet (only 5 of them…no surprise, although I’m boycotting most of the Diana flicks as nothing more than pandering to the almighty dollar). And a few other topics upcoming in the queue are: abortion, eight of the American Experience series, profanity, “alternative” relationships (LGBT, polyamory, swinging), submarines, Nikola Tesla, wild animals, body art, religion & anti-religion, taboos in general, death, apocalyptic movies & documentaries, Mae West movies, the paranormal, a scattering of horror flicks, a TV series I never got to see all of (Earth 2) and a TV series I never got to see at all (Space: Above & Beyond). My interests are just a wee bit eclectic, you might say.

The pretty crochet jacket I’m about halfway done with will be too small for me, so I’m going to give it to Geoffrey’s sister, probably for Yule. I really like the pattern, though, and I have tons of the yarn left, so I’m hoping to make one for me, too — I just have to up-gauge the pattern, which isn’t hard once you have nearly 20 years of crocheting experience under your belt! With any luck, I’ll have it done by July.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach, I’m looking forward to getting a copy of her newest book, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (although I think she should have stuck with the title starting with a 5-letter word, and called it “Boink”).

I’ve started planning the road trip that Lyse & I will be taking the week after my birthday in June …and somebody needs to email me back about the suggestions I made. Since the Oregon Vortex is the core attraction (and it IS highly nifty!), I’ve been looking for other fun places in southern Oregon to visit…and I’ve come to the conclusion that southern Oregon is mainly for people who like to hunt, fish, hike, kayak, spelunk, and otherwise exhaust themselves with outdoorsy activities. Not exactly Lil- and Lyse-friendly type stuff…but hopefully we’ll stumble across enough pioneer cemeteries and other off-beat spots to make up for it. So far it looks like RoadsideAmerica is a good site to look for strange tourist attractions…someday I will take the Stonehenges of America tour. *GRIN*

It’s kind of depressing, though, that I’ve already seen at least half the sites listed in the Oregon section of RoadsideAmerica. Then again, we do have a weird little state…and I still have most of the Washington sites yet to visit!

No matter how tired I am, or what a rotten day it’s been, Jonathan always makes me smile. It still surprises me a little that — just by virtue of holding him & kissing on him & calling him my little buddy — he likes me and wants to glom onto me…or at least have me hold him while he stares transfixedly at the living room decorations, or lunges to grab onto a kitty tail, or makes faces as I feed him a brand-new flavor of Gerber. He’s fascinated by my cell phone, my tongue piercing, my glasses…imagining how things must look to him makes me see things anew, which is damned nifty at times.

And ohmigawd, he is just too damned cute (even in crappy cell-phone pics, which is all I can take at the moment). Here he is, attempting to eat a cell phone:

And my favorite pic of him, which I took from the outdoor side of my sliding glass door while he was on the indoor side:

I’m totally gonzo over this kid — he delights me nearly as much as my own kids ever did, but without all the mixed blessings of parenting!

This is all Karel’s fault. He put it on his blog, and I spent six-and-a-half minutes trying not to frighten my cats with all the hysterical laughter. Definitely the most fun I’ve had in 6 minutes (with my clothes on, anyway!) so far this year.

I’ve just discovered how very excruciatingly difficult it is to find, on the Internet, a high-quality, high-resolution photo of a labyrinth (particularly the Chartres Cathedral style design) without people on it. Apparently everyone and their brother wants to have pictures of themselves, their kids, their dogs, and their girlfriends walking on a labyrinth. (One idiot specializes in multiple-exposure shots with his gal appearing in several places in the same photo. Grrrr.)

I did discover a few pics, which will adorn my desktop at work, that aren’t half bad. They’re just not perfect. But they’ll do, for the time being.

The calendar says it’s April, but apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the memo, because it’s been cold and obnoxious. I say we change the name of the month to Apruary.

I wanted to blog on the 1st, but I couldn’t think of anything appropriate for the day. I knew nobody would believe that I was entering a convent, pregnant with triplets, taking up body painting at Burning Man, or fucking Matt Damon.

Having 5 cats in the house for the last 10 days has been terribly amusing. It did not surprise me that, after the first couple of days, Zadya stopped hissing & growling at the interlopers (Lyse’s cats — Wolverine and Gizmo…gee, you think she likes movies or something?). Nor did it surprise me that Hasani was apparently too stupid to notice that a couple of new cats were in his house, and continued to be terribly confused every time he spotted one of them. It did, however, surprise me that Michiko still hasn’t stopped being afraid of Lyse’s cats. Maybe it’s because they’re both at least double her weight…or maybe she’s just a weird little kitty. I mean, damn — she eats lettuce! What kind of cat loves lettuce?!

Anxiety made us go to IHOP tonight for dinner, because she wanted Who-Cakes. I hate pancakes, but I discovered that they make pancakes with cornmeal — and they’re scrumptious!!! We all made fun of Lyse because she eats her pancakes from the inside out. Then the Red-Headed Stepchild said that she eats her pancakes clockwise, so we made fun of her too.

My new bed is really damned spiffy. It’s HUGE. I made a joke the other day that it’s called a California king-sized because it’s not politically correct to call it “orgy sized.” Desmond at work nearly choked to death laughing. I just love that boy; he’s utterly adorable…even if he did call me “Kitten” when I arrived for my 4 hours of overtime today. (Don’t get any ideas, people. Only Desmond is allowed to call me that. He won my heart a few weeks ago when he arrived at work coughing & sniffling one day, and I asked him if he was sick. He smiled brightly and answered, “Yeah — you wanna make out?”)

In other work news, I was absolutely stunned when I was elected to become one of the two call center reps who helps represent the rest of the reps at meetings. I had no idea that enough people liked me and thought highly of me to vote for me! (I know I’m good at my job, and I try to be likeable, but it still blew me away. I kinda felt like Sally Fields accepting an Oscar.)

Law Dog is one of my heroes. Read this to find out why.

Now going to try to relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

Work — Co-workers are leaving the department like rats deserting a sinking ship. By the time I hit my 1-year anniversary in mid-May, I will be 11th in seniority, in a department of approximately 26 people. I was highly complimented by a couple of my leads encouraging me to apply for the upcoming lead opening. I told them no; I like my day shift too much to switch to four 10-hour swing shifts. Anyway, when I said I wasn’t applying for the lead position, one of my leads replied, “Okay, but please just don’t leave the department!” It was said with no little bit of urgency, which was a lovely compliment.

Home — I got the coat closet completely cleaned out and organized. (Exciting, eh?) And got an emergency food & water supply set up in case of natural disaster, the collapse of civilization, or zombie wars. By Monday night, I will have a California king-sized platform captain’s bed with a brand-new mattress and 4 brand-new pillows (purchased today). Dustin bought the bedframe a few months ago, but since he & Angst got a new place with a smaller bedroom, he offered to trade it for the nice & cushiony (but not huge) futon that Geoffrey & I have (plus, of course, the nice sheets that fit that bed). New sheets from EgyptianPeddler are on their way (to make Geoffrey smile, we got black…with 2 black pillowcases and 2 burgundy).

Health — It took over 3 weeks, but I seem to be finally recovered from the horrendous ick. I was so sick, I didn’t see Karel for damned near a month. On the upside, being sick enough to do little more than sit meant I got a ton of crocheting done.

Offspring (mine) — Everything seems to be going well. As far as I can tell.

Offspring (not mine) — Jonathan finally cut some teeth, just yesterday! He’s still the sweetest, most adorable, most delightful little boy ever. Also the quietest baby I’ve ever known; he doesn’t babble constantly like most babies of not-quite 9-months old, just makes the occasional pronouncement of a nonsense syllable or two when he’s done thinking about something. He’s also one of the most affectionate kids I’ve ever seen. He just loves to throw himself at you for hugs. He also loves to pet the kitties, without too much grabbing at them…Hasani will usually put up with it for several minutes.

Men (mine) — I have incredibly fabulous lovers, who have been wonderful in putting up with my whining about being sick for the last 3+ weeks, not to mention my inability to be a tigress in bed due to constant coughing and sniffling.

Men (not mine) — I’ve been re-reading my books on polyamory, which helps remind me that I have incredibly fabulous lovers. So hey, the NRE is long gone…c’est la vie, and all that. At least I’m not frequently in tears or a raging fury over the asshattery of some guy I’m involved with. Thank the gods.

Sex — My love life is (still) like a fusion reactor: incredibly hot, immensely powerful, and mostly theoretical.

Friends — I’ve come to the conclusion that pretty much everyone I really, really like is someone who (with rare exception) pretty much doesn’t like people. Friends who help you avoid becoming hermits altogether, but who understand why you might be inclined to do so, are invaluable!

Critters — Lyse is going to the South to visit her mom for about 10 days, starting late next week. This means I’ll have 5 cats in the house during that time…should be quite exciting. The 2 boy hamsters got out of their cage, then unbeknownst to us ate something poisonous to them before they were recaptured, and both died the next day (for yet another rodent funerary rite in the side yard). The gerbil, and surviving hamster, are too freaking adorable, and fun to play with. The lizard is shedding and irritable fairly often, but likes to eat greens out of my hand, and is very happy with his new stone corner platform that I got for his cage. The bunny has shed so much recently that I swear he’s hiding another 3 or 4 bunnies somewhere! We clipped his nails, which he hates, but he seems a lot happier for it.

Netflix — I have gotten through many, many documentaries on the Dark Ages and the Anglo-Saxons, most of which were quite good (and just a couple of which were loathsome). Next batch in the queue is the Vikings and the Crusades, followed by a bunch on the history of British royals (yes, all of them). And then a bunch of American history. (I’m trying to stay at least vaguely chronological.)

Crocheting — I’m about 3/4 done with the enormous blue & black afghan that I’ve spent most of the last month working on, which Angst desperately wants to have. I still have to finish my green filet crochet of Celtic knotwork, a purple shawl-type thing I’m making for my grandmother’s birthday in early May, and the purple artsy-spirals thing I’m planning on making into a wall decoration. There are probably more unfinished projects…I just can’t remember what else I have going. At least I haven’t started making the socks, or the thread crochet skirt, that I’ve already bought the yarn for! The good news is, I virtually always finish my crochet projects…sometimes it just takes 3 or 4 years (like that granny squares afghan I made for Lyse).

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print.

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day just a smidgen early this year…

The corned beef went into the crockpot very early this morning. I’d never done corned beef in a crockpot, so it promised to be an interesting experiment. Now that I have, I’ll never cook it another way again. (Here’s the recipe: Put meat & spices in crockpot. Just barely cover with water. Put it on high for 6 hours. Then add cabbage and carrots, and potatoes if desired. Add hot water to just barely cover the cabbage, and put it on high for 2-3 more hours, depending on how well done you like your veggies.)

I also baked Irish soda bread. FROM SCRATCH. I don’t normally bake (or cook, if I can help it) so I was surprised that it turned out as well as it did. Lyse told me 5 or 6 times that it was scrumptious. (Here’s the recipe: Mix 4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl. Add 1 pint buttermilk. Stir until just moistened. Knead only until dough holds together fairly well. Form into a ball, place in pie pan and smoosh it so the top is flat. With a knife dipped in flour, cut an X across the top — if it doesn’t have the X, it’s not authentic Irish soda bread! Bake covered at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then bake uncovered for another 15 minutes. Best either fresh out of the oven, or cooked the day before and stored loosely covered overnight.)

We also had crackers and Irish cheese (Dubliner, which was a bit hit with everyone, and Blarney Castle, which I liked but everyone else said tasted like anise). And cupcakes with green frosting…because there’s just something about green frosting that makes me smile.

Geoffrey and Lyse spent last night at the VA emergency room, since Lyse re-injured her back and could barely move. I spent all day yesterday (and a good chunk of the night, too) doing laundry and crocheting…but all the laundry in the house is clean! Then today there was cooking, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning out all the critters’ cages and clipping Bun-Bun’s nails (which he HATES), cooking, and cleaning the kitchen. Have I mentioned how much I hate cooking? (But I did get another corned beef, to have next weekend for the vernal equinox. Because I have always looooved corned beef.) I think I slept enough this weekend that I’m on the tail end of being sick — I almost felt healthy today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Despite having a few days off last week to help recover from whatever hellish ick that I caught, I was still sick all this week. Including today. (The rest of this is just about being sick, and miscellaneous work stuff, so only people who really really like me will give a damn. Everyone else, continue surfing elsewhere.)

And now for something completely TMI…