Another Longwinded Nutshell

Greetings, fair readers, assuming you exist. I know I have been very inconsistent with this bloggy-ness-thing. Life happens. Fortunately, I do still take lots of pictures, and duty days of boredom and loneliness are actually a good chance to write, if you want to start doing that glass-half-whatever thing. I have been up and down and dabbling across many fields [as I tend to do], so I'm going to repeat a previous format and see how it goes. This promises to be long-winded, so by all means feel free to skip to the parts that interest you.

 

Yarn Stuffs:

I finally got ballsy and decided to see exactly how much I knitted and crocheted while on deployment. This is the result. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to start putting the blanket together yet, and I'm actually starting to get a little nervous about how many various qualities, textures, weights, and sizes there are of squares. Girl night scheduled soon in order to divvy up squares for everyone. In related news, I have so much scrap yarn from this project that I have decided to start a random side-project blanket, which I have deemed 'the Ugliest Blanket in the Universe.' It is mindless, simple, and we'll see where it goes.

I am considering starting a file or notebook titled 'Cozy Compendium,' because if there's an inanimate object out there, there's damn sure a cozy for it. So far the only thing I have successfully completed in the cozy department is a skillet-handle-cover, and wow, yes, that was so worth it. My list of tiny things to make for friends is ever increasing, and I should probably get to work on those if I want to have ANYthing ready to go by Christmas.

Critter Stuffs:

What originally started as Hubs randomly suggesting 'Let's get a fish for the kitties!' has endured much research and much startup capital, and now results in us having a full-blown aquarium. Nothing too fancy, just a 10 gallon tank. We're starting the nitrogen cycle with a [Half-Moon] Betta [Hank, named after Henry Rollins], a snail [Etienne, because that's French for 'Steve'], and a small handful of ghost shrimp. I still really want to get some sort of Pleco, and hubs is gunning for some tetras since Bettas are supposed to 'tolerate' them. Hank is actually a darker blue, but he gets shiny and aqua in some lights. So far Miss Z is fascinated, she has tried to pat the tank a few times [she is a very feet-y cat]. Orange is mildly amused, but seems to think that he needs human chauffeuring to get from floor to desktop. The Princess could care less. 

Plant Stuffs:

So far, so good. Aside from occasionally forgetting to water them [the sunflower is the only one that can't handle it], me being home really does make all the difference. The aloe pups are still growing, and the sunflower will bloom... eventually. The only thing I'm not sure about is the mystery plant might be getting too much sun and I'm thinking it might be time to repot it into a larger home. 

Also, I was cruising through Safeway the other day and found THIS little guy... er, big guy rather! It was a little more expensive and I was skeptical of buying him from a grocery store, but upon closer inspection, this plant is WORLDS better than the ones I have bought from actual 'plant stores' via Amazon. I am excited to repot this sucker into some peat moss and perhaps settle him in to a shelf over the kitchen sink. [Note to self, build shelf over kitchen sink.]

 Music Stuffs:
Maybe I will do full reviews later on in an effort to blog more often, but, I have a couple new albums. Cursory listen to Middle Class Rut left me somewhat unimpressed, while the new MSI album is exactly what I'd expect from them plus a little more edge.

As far as personal music goes, well, the pendulum tends to swing between extremes. We were overdoing it a couple weeks ago, and followed that up with almost no musical activity to speak of. We're trying to reach a balancing point between the two, but we'll see. Still feeling kind of suck/dumb on keys, and haven't learned or practiced anything in a while. For bass, I managed to solidify a couple newer covers and hammer out a couple of Corson's originals. Hubs eventually wants to record them for an EP. The tour has also been postponed, and that band has petered out as a result.

Geek Stuffs:
Definitely not as active in this department as I was a few weeks ago. Have put a bit more time into Civ5 BNW and come to the conclusion that Brazil is just not a good strategy in a multiplayer game. Tried XCOM for about a half a second but was feeling impatient with the tutorial.

Read the Oatmeal.
Can't remember what else I was going to put here.

Work Stuffs:

We made a lot of progress on our actual work, and the contractors still love me. I recalculated my scores and I should probably make the next promotion pretty easily. However, getting very discontent and frustrated with the drama and politics. Starting to lean towards 'FTN I'm OUT!' instead of reenlisting. Some days it's just not worth it and I want my life back. But anyways.

 

Gym Stuffs:

Perhaps this should be filed under 'work stuffs,' but it's hard to say since the two are so dreadfully intertwined. I need to shave a whole minute off my 1.5 mile in about a month. I'm sure it's doable, but I'm not having the best time trying to make time to run at home. I'm sure you can imagine. However, with a little effort I should actually be able to make it into the 'excellent' category for pushups [37] and 'good' for situps [54]. That would equate to like, a B and a C if we were talking school grades. My run is a metaphorical D-.

Kitchen Stuffs:

Another rather dull section, really. I still cook, all the time... Because I EAT all the time... but, really, nothing fun, new, or interesting going on here that I can recall.

Mind & Body Stuffs:
Sleep is still very much out of whack, and my back hurts more often that not. Today is a pretty bad hand-day, but I have an appointment with a neurologist next month to continue the diagnostic process. Finally have an appointment to look at some new medications... just so happens to fall on my 'day off' about four or five hours after I WAS going to get to head home. And again, I live roughly an hour away, so it's not like I could go home for lunch or a nap or anything and go back out. Hopefully better updates on this topic in the future.