The Back-Slide Cha-Cha

Two steps forward, Three steps back. Cha-cha-cha.

I realized yesterday how easy it is to slip back into bad habits--and how difficult it is to maintain good ones. We wanted to eat at home and cook more, rather than eat out [for the benefit of both health and our bank accounts]. That lasted about two weeks. I wanted to get back into yoga. One week on, one week off. I'm not on here to bitch and moan though, more to muse. Within a week or so, we stopped cooking, I stopped keeping my food log, started buying coffee rather than making it at home... it was all just so easy to start again. But now that I've really caught the backsliding, I can actually do something about it. So.

Today when I woke up it was actually perfect weather to do yard work. So I did! I spent a good couple hours planting more crocus bulbs, aerating part of the side yard and sowing lavender, and sweeping up the sidewalk. I will probably regret this tomorrow, if not later tonight. I was going to weed the side flower bed, but Mr. Obnoxious was being, well, obnoxious. Decided it was probably time to give the neighbors' ears a break.

I haven't been writing [obviously today changes that]. I did manage to finish one of the baby blankets, but the other is still barely started. Although I dropped my math class, I have been keeping up pretty well on Kahn Academy. However... I'm a little nervous about taking pre-Calc 2 and Java at the same time, so I started doing some of their JS tutorials. I'm not trying to brag, but this entry level type coding seems to be coming to me very naturally. It's kind of like line-editing, or learning a foreign language. It's all just a matter of knowing the right commands and using 'correct' punctuation [for the program]. I'm hoping that this might be the start of me settling into a career finally.

Unfortunately, I can't focus on coding as strongly with company over... the boys are about to start playing something online, which will distract the hell out of me. And we'll probably throw on a movie as well. I could work on the other blanket, but my hands are kind of sore from gardening. I'm definitely too tired and sore to be cleaning up or doing more laundry [why is it that laundry never ends?]... soooo I will likely try Civ Beyond Earth again. It was on sale so we snagged it. I'm still not sure how I feel about it--I can't seem to do as well on BE as I have on V--but then again, I have played V for years. Plus, I'm limited to things I can do with a puppy in my lap.

Side note, Pup-date: He's had his stitches out for a couple weeks now and everything's doing well. He finally got a bath again! He still has one teeny scab from the stitches, but everything else is healed up. Except... he hasn't quite grown back his foot fur yet, so his toes look really creepy. Especially next to his other foot. We're hoping that was his last histiocytoma, but only time will tell. He'll be 2 this July, which is around the time they 'normally' stop showing up.

It's Not so Much a Storm, But Just a Cloud That Lives Inside of Me...

I was just looking for a good lyric to start this off with. I guess if you look at it, it's actually pretty accurate--I'm not the bundle of anger and fury I used to be, but I'm far from 100%. I'm actually doing pretty well these days, aside from dealing with medical and bureaucracy and what not. But it's been too long since I've written, and I had some extra time on my hands.

Anyways, point being. Honestly, I got so into finding good lyrics that I kind of forgot what I was going to write about. Looking forward to moving, of course; we put an application down on a nice place near the college. I can't wait to pack everything up and start fresh.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

I was force-converted to Ubuntu by the kitten and his dad, and holy crap. It's taking some getting used to. Basically, we tried to play Civ5 one night, but my trusty laptop kept crashing... not something I'm used to. They reformatted it and installed Ubuntu and it runs a lot better, but I'm dealing with some moderate frustrations whenever I try to do anything besides surf the net. Currently I'm cycling through music players/media managers, trying to find one that's got the functionality of iTunes and can adequately chew through my 50,000 track library. Yes, 50,000. I'm on my fourth program, but took a break so I didn't break things. I will say though, my computer runs a lot smoother on linux, but I miss my programs.

Thanks to a quote from a sweet gal, I have finished one of my favorite art pieces ever. As soon as I read it, the idea came to me. I'm not sure if she found the quote or it came out of her own skull, but it's amazing and touching and I am really glad I got to do this project. I also finished my mermaid piece [that quote is ee cummings] for Havi and my first "commissioned" artwork for a gal I used to work with. Her first duty station was in Japan, so I had that to work on; she had just moved and told me her living room scheme was red-brown-black. That was plenty of info for me! I'm really enjoying art-ing, with the exception of cutting the ribcage out of tissue paper with an exacto knife... that was tedious. I'm a little bummed that I've put down the yarn for the time being, but it comes and goes. My only complaint is that the weekend never seems to be long enough. Once I finally feel relaxed, I don't feel up to getting things done. But as the rheumatologist said, I guess, "...that's just fibro."

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.

Haze Grey +25 [the homestretch]

Haven’t really had much to write about lately, mostly just absurd work BS. Some bath-salts freak tried to break into our house a couple weeks ago; hubby wanted to nail him with the compound bow but the cops got there in time instead. Funny thing is, almost the exact same incident happened at almost the exact same time, not more than a mile down the road.

Have been working out mostly regularly, nothing particularly interesting to update there. My knees are killing me; considering my mom has old sports injuries and my dad just had surgery for his knee last week, I’m a little nervous. Bring on the fish oil, I suppose. Was chatting with coworkers and to be “healthy” I will take a handful of about 15 supplements and vitamins each day. Looking forward to that. *sarcasm*

Last night my I let my phone battery run down all the way on accident, and ever since, it has not wanted to turn back on. Hopefully I can just get away with replacing the battery once I’m home, but that’s going to make my next few days extremely annoying. I miss my phone!

When we hit SanD the other day I was able to get Steam into offline mode via my phone [because that’s the one Starbucks in all of America that doesn’t have wifi—wtf?]. Since then I started a new Gods & Kings [Civ 5] game as Babylon and I am generally digging the expansion. They nerfed a couple things that I will miss, but the whole Faith aspect is a really cool game addition. Hubby bought us all the DLC too, so we have every possible leader. I can’t wait to get home and try it out with hubs! After I beat the pants off of this game, I’m going to try a harder difficulty and also explore some of the other cultures. I also got the brilliant idea to do some research [I am still comparatively new to Civ, I only picked it up at civ4] and make an afghan with squares from each core civilization. They all have “team colors” and a little icon, so I think it could be really cool. For example, USA is a white star on a blue background, and England is a white crown on a red background. Hubs thinks I’m a geek.

Speaking of crochet, I have kind of been letting that slide lately. It’s hard to keep up with finding patterns that are mindless enough for me to pick up and put down whenever—tapestry style [using charts] is not particularly good for that. I learned how to do a treble front-post, but can’t get the squares to look neat since I’m not alternating colors. My bad.

Haze Grey +11 [Bass Ackwards]

Accidentally stayed up for 24 hours on the 3^rd. Then accidentally slept for 12 hours. Then stayed up for 24 hours again out of necessity… Tried to sleep through the night, and got interrupted by a drill, so I had to run down to the office. Should have stayed up and worked out, but I was grumpy so I went back to bed for a couple more hours. Got up for ‘midrats’ [oh, I love you midrats, yes please, feed me at midnight] and now I think I’m up for the day. That’s a little frustrating, and I’m sure I’ll regret it, but I should be back around to normal in a couple days. I guess we started a night shift effective immediately, and I am pretty bummed I’m not on it. I’d be so good on night shift!

I hate the way people just mosey here. I mean, come on. I’m not always in a hurry, but I walk with purpose [blame my dad]. Get from point A to point B, and if you’re just walking around to waste time and look busy, get the eff out of MY way. People have absolutely no self awareness.

In other news, due to a glitch/bug with Steam on the ONLY day I put it online [in order to download the Gods and Kings expansion] my gaming ability is incapacitated. Which makes me sad. I was really enjoying playing Civ on watch, and I was supposed to practice with the expansion so hubby doesn’t wipe the floor with me when I get home. But now I’ll have to wait a while before I can fix it, since we don’t get real internet. And that’s only if we’re lucky enough to get a couple hours free in SanD. Not gonna lie, pretty bummed out. And I can’t even crack it either.

I really want a cup of coffee, but since our coffee supply is limited [our hookups aren’t exactly pulling through] I guess I’ll settle for tea. Also I hear tomorrow my semi-boss might be building a power supply from scratch. I told him I wanted to help.