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Half of 2013 gone. Wow.

I’ll take Time Warp for $1000, Alex! I’m disturbed by how fast 2013 is going by. It is both good and bad for us: good in that the bankruptcy will fall off credit and bad that we are still in GA. Argh. This is a random catch up post, so get ready for a ride on the Middle Aged Random Thoughts Express™! Wheeeeee!!!

Have you ever experienced having someone that you know (either well or just casually) just pop up with some crazy religious crap? This lady I am casual acquaintances with, the wine steward at Kroger, really shocked me with a religious bit recently. We were chatting and she mentioned ‘the wedding’ then said, “oh, you haven’t heard! My boyfriend and I are getting married!” I said, “Boyfriend? I thought you were already married!!”
Kroger lady: “No, but we’ve lived together for 20 years.”
Me: “Then why bother getting married now? For the benefits, right?”
KL: “No, it’s just the right thing to do.”
Me: “What do you mean?”
KL: “It’s the right thing to do.”

Then I went into why we got married (strictly for the bennies, we don’t give one hoot about the piece of paper) and why I just don’t understand why the benefits are restricted to straight people. Either we ALL get them, or NO ONE gets them. Her reply shocked me: “Well, they are an abomination and it’s not right in the eyes of God.”

After I picked up my jaw from the floor, I said, “What are you talking about? If marriage is all about the church, then why do we go to the COURTHOUSE to get a license? I don’t see how the church has anything to do with it.” Continue reading “Half of 2013 gone. Wow.”

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Best Laid Plans

Ah, I dunno. We had such plans for this house and most of them did not pan out. We’ve had plans for the comics. Not panning out. Plans for several people – those most definitely did not pan out.

Some days it’s hard to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and carry on. But carry on we must. We continue to save up for our BIG BIG PLAN and hope the gods smile upon us as we carry it out. It’s scary, exhilarating, nauseating and awesome all at once. But mostly scary.

Not much else to say today other than I wish to not dream of today, but of the future.

Sometimes that is a tall order.

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General Updates in the Key of Meh

Well, lessee… Where to start?

DJ
DJ is doing very well. He’s lost some weight, so now he looks like an old cat, but his heart is stable and so is the cryptococcus. Dr Smallwood said, “There’s no reason he won’t be here for another 3 years! He’s doing great!” She said that neither of these conditions would likely end him, it’d be something out of the blue. I find that somewhat comforting.

Missy Kat
Missy is doing very well. I’ve got to take her in for a checkup, tho. It’s been four years+ since she’s been to the Dr! Which is great, but she could use a tune up and tire rotation fer sure! I’ve been so distracted with DJ’s issues, that I’ve neglected her checkups! BAD MOMMA!

Nick
My Weasel is doing OK. He’s been up and down a little, but Heroes was fun despite the Virus From Hell™. He’s drawing more and seems fairly content. I hope he continues to draw so we can get the Ninjas going.

Me
Speaking of checkups… I’m way overdue for my gyno visit. The stupid Mirena is mostly fine – I still get random bleeding complete with horrible PMS, tho. Meh. Nick also wants me to go to the dermatologist – he’s convinced I’ve got a tumor or something. Again: meh. Waste of money, IMO.

My hair has finally grown out from the horrible cut I got from the student. I need to see Marty and get it shaped up. I know what I want, I hope I can get it across! I want the standard inverted bob, but with the weight line in a V at the ear rather than at the front. Can’t find a pic. MEH.

I’ve had some fairly nasty Fear and Loathing™ lately. It’s partly Mirena psychosis and partly just plain old stress. I’m very unhappy with my fat ass. I’m going to try once again to diet. My whole life has been a goddam diet. If I can’t manage it by 50, I’m stopping and giving in to the FAT genes. That’s it. 3.5 more years of trying to lose weight, then I’m STOPPING. I’d say 35+ years of dieting is enough, wouldn’t you? If I can’t lose the weight, then I can’t. I’m tired of letting it run my life. It’s about as bad as the fucking Vile Organ that has run my life for the same number of years. FUCK THAT. I’m getting way old, way fast. I’ve got to let go of these things that make me pretty damned miserable. Life is TOO SHORT, as I am finally beginning to learn. [Got VSG surgery in 2016. Best decision EVAR. -A 2021]

Random Stuff
I can’t keep the birds and squirrels out of the damn greenhouse. I put up netting, they get through it. Of course, they work hard to get IN, then they can’t get back OUT. Which means me going out there and undoing about 10 safety pins to open up the damn netting. ::sigh:: I just opened it up yesterday. Fuck it. The squirrels will dig up the plants and the birds will peck the fruit. Whatever.

The pickling and making jam is going well. The pickles from the second batch are in the fridge, I hope they are crispy and have more flavour than the first batch. The cherry jam is good, but it can be better. Less pectin and more balsamic vinegar, I think – and perhaps a mix of sweet and sour cherries. The marmalade, while very labour intensive, is delicious. I think I’ll make another batch and fiddle with the pectin – it could be just a tish tighter.

The penne bake I’ve been working on is pretty much done. It’s now got pesto, feta and oil cured olives in it for a LOT more flavour. It’s renamed Mediterranean Pasta Bake rather than Italian. I’m working on a poached cod recipe and a pork recipe, too. I’m starting to work on the cookbook in earnest. I’ve decided to GO FOR IT. Why not? I’ve got nothing else to do!

We saw Avengers last night at the Fox. What FUN! The preshow is about an hour and has a slideshow of all the work they’ve done on the Fox, a wonderful demo of Mighty Mo (the pipe organ), a sing along with Mighty Mo and a Looney Tunes cartoon. It was fun to enjoy Avengers with a crowd that large! Also, if you go to one of these shows, get there EARLY and sit upstairs for the best view.

I guess that’s it for now. We’re gonna go to Big Lots for the 20% off day today then hang around the house. Ciao!

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Drizzly Moanday

I started off the weekend liking the drizzly rain – but now I’m over it. This is why I can’t live in the Northwest. I’d end up a puddle of goo on the sofa. A couple of days is all I can take of grey, damp drizzle. Ugh.

I’m in a period of complete and utter standstill. It happens after traumatic events, so it’s not unexpected, but I hardly need MORE demotivation in my life. I barely accomplish anything as it is.

As Moanday stretches before me, all I can think to do is go back to bed. Which is not particularly industrious. It’s not like I don’t have things to do. I just don’t want to do them. Including the evil exercise to keep the weight gain at bay. I had lost almost 20# but I’ve gained back a couple from the illness and subsequent lethargy. 20# ain’t gonna cut it. I’ve got 50 more just to make a dent. It’s daunting and I’m so tired of fucking dieting. It’s all I do. Day in and day out, I count calories and diet. I’ve done this for years. I can look at food and tell you its calories and fat/carb breakdown. But it doesn’t seem to make any difference. The only thing that will is working out for an hour every single motherfucking day and then I lose about 1# per week. It’s really not very motivating to lose ONE fucking pound. ONE. After exercising every goddam day. My calorie intake is around 1400-1600. I’m destined to be fat, I think. And when I think this, it seems silly to count calories and exercise every goddam day. What is the fucking point?

The fact of the matter is I’m old, I’ve always been fat and now that menopause and even LOWER metabolism is on the horizon, I just don’t think I can get ahead of it. I’m not cut out to be a gym rat. I DETEST exercise. It is a massive act of willpower to even do the treadmill, much less Jillian or Kathy on top of it. Especially when I know, deep in my heart, that it won’t do any good. I’ll be a fat old lady. I know this. Most of the women on both sides of my genetic code were fat old ladies, as I will be.

Ugh. Whine, whine, I know. It’s just a grey day and MADE for whining.

I’ll stop now and go put my fat ass on the treadmill. For what good it will do. Bleh.

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Ah, Spring!

NOT! Gods, I really hate this pollen. The last coupla weeks have been about setting our minds towards our goal of getting out of here. The top reasons:
1. We are sick of the ghetto.
2. We are sick of the South.
3. We need a better artist community.
4. We are desperate for a CHANGE in general.
5. We want better weather, as in, no pollen and less humidity.

There are tons of other reasons, but these are the top 5. That’s all I’m saying right now, but change is in the works. And it can’t come soon enough for me, I can tell you.

Change seems to be the theme of this year. LOTS of shakeups in friends and family situations: divorces, moves, new houses, spawning. Someone is even leaving Nick’s workplace (GASP!!). We feel that all this change in the air is only helping us do what we need to and we hope to garner as much of that energy as we can.

I’m even leaving my long time domain registrar bargainname.com. It’s become a zombie site that is part of Dotster, but even the Dotster employees don’t know about it. All domains are registered with Dotster in the whois, so apparently the site is somehow affiliated. But it’s totally unmanned and that makes me nervous. So as domains expire, I’m moving them to namecheap.com, which is a bit clunky, but definitely NOT a zombie site and has good prices. My hosting company’s pricing is a bit high, so I decided to continue my practice of using a separate registrar. It’s also better to keep your registrar separate so you can change hosts with minimal disruption.

Speaking of domains. What to do when an old client’s domain is up for renewal and you can’t get ahold of him? I’ve emailed the dude for 2 months and I’d intended to let the domain expire, but thanks to ME not turning off goddam autorenew, now he’s got a year of free domain. Harumph. He has not paid his GoDaddy account and the site is not up, but the GoDaddy account is still there. WTF? In any case, that’s $10 I’ll never get back. Dammit.

Our anniversary is right around the corner. We’ve booked at The Iberian Pig, as usual. I tell you, we’ll certainly miss our favourite restaurants and bars. The Porter, in particular, we’ll miss like crazy. We love those guys!!

But, change is good and change we will. We’ve needed it for a long time and have just been too complacent to do anything about it. When Wells Fargo (those asslicking sons of bitches) told us, basically, to fuck right on off when we asked for a refi or something to help us out, that sealed it for us. We can’t keep this place and if we’re gonna move, we’re gonna MOVE, ya feel me? Yah.

We’ve got our two cons coming up. Trek Trax is in a month and Heroes at the end of June. We have not a single thing new to offer as of now and I don’t think we will, period. I’m just not feeling it for the comics right now and I know for a FACT that Nick is not. He’s not drawn or written much of anything in MONTHS. The goal was to have Awkward Ninja Squad launched by now, but it’s not happening. The longer term goal was to have something for the cons – especially HEROES – but I have little hope of that. I think the comics are pretty much dead for the time being. It makes me sad and sucks every last bit of what small amount of creativity I have right out of me, but there it is. I can’t force him to do it. I can’t force a new comic or even the old one. I wish I could, trust me, but that’s not the way it works. :(

And finally, we’ve got to do fucking taxes this coming Monday. Buh. Our regular tax guy has disappeared (he could be dead, he was old and sickly) so we’ve got a new tax guy. It doesn’t really matter to me, we don’t have much to write off anyway with the bankruptcy taking all the cons and stuff with it. We did buy a bunch of equipment at the end of the year, tho, so we’ll get to write that off plus the usual office stuff, etc.

That’s the exciting update. Not much going on to the naked eye, but LOTS happening behind the scenes. We’ll probably be even more difficult to get ahold of from now on, so always use email as your first choice to contact us. I’m busy and I won’t stop what I’m doing to answer the stupid phone. I don’t particularly like FB messaging, either. However, I do like a good game of Draw Something, so feel free to find me there! :)