Death's Infinite Variations

Optical Annoyances

2009-05-10T21:33:26Z

Nothing like being on the verge of opening up the brand new containers bearing the fortnight's contacts, and realising that the idiot shop assistant at the store gave you DOUBLE your prescription strength. I guess maybe wearing -4.00 instead of -2.00 and getting drunk might be an interesting trip, but for daily wear, kind of obnoxious and not very practical.

Of course I had just thrown out the previous pair too, moments before grabbing the new ones and realising the error.

Luckily for me, when I got my prescription renewed the other week, they were 3 boxes short which I picked up earlier this week from the actual optometrist herself, not the shop assistant. And, thankfully, the optometrist can read and gave me my proper prescription.

To top it off, when I went to the store earlier to go exchange them, Lenscrafters was actually closed too *headdesk*.

At any rate, I'm thinking the shop assistant might need reading glasses...

Trip

2009-05-10T04:58:45Z

On Tuesday I'll be leaving for South Africa with Matilda, to go stay with my dad and stepmum for a month (I'll be back on Thursday the 11th of June).

The boys are staying here, one has work, and the other has school and of course all the therapies he receives there. I didn't want him to miss any of that. A month is a long time in therapy terms really, especially as he's already had really patchy Physical Therapy this school year, between the late start of the first PT Alexis, and then the 2+ months where she wouldn't treat Dashiell until we got the medical all-clear from a neurologist to prove he didn't have epilepsy or seizures, and then Alexis left to work somewhere else and it took a while for the school to attract a new PT.

My youngest brother will be staying with my dad and stepmum too, he just graduated with his degree (Earth and Planetary Observation Science), and it will be really cool to get to spend some time with him, and for him to get to know Matilda, as he hasn't seen her yet. He was always really awesome with Dashiell, so I think he's going to really dig spending time with his niece too this time around.

Part of me considered taking my St. Petersburg cross-stitch piece with me, but I think that might be a little involved, so I figure I might get some reading done. Of course, most of the books I want to read seem to be hardback or trade paperback size, which sucks, as I don't really want to stuff too many of those into my suitcase, and risk the ire of airline staff and their luggage weight limits *sigh*. Time to go find other books to take with me instead I guess...

Oh, and while away, I'll only have very sporadic internet access, once or twice a week is usually the frequency with which the 'rents go to the internet cafe (they have no internet at the house at the moment), so odds are I won't be in touch much. My gmail would probably be the easier email address to contact me at (malediction @ ...) rather than my goth.net one, as it receives less mailing list and spam stuff, so easier to separate the wheat from the chaff and all that.

Congratulations!

2009-05-03T02:43:10Z

Congratulations Nic on the arrival of Christian Xavier and Zara Kayla!

Born Tuesday April 28th

♥

Helpfulness

2009-05-02T04:04:03Z

Matilda seems to like helping, or trying to at least. She's in that whole stage of bringing things to you to give. As I type, she just wandered in to hand me a spoon.

Of course, not all of her help is quite as helpful as I'd like. The other night when I was folding laundry, if I took socks out of the basket to pair up, she kept throwing the loose ones back into the basket. The basket that contained folded clothes, she decided needed to be emptied one item at a time. It was funny, but it does get kind of aggravating to put the same laundry in the basket about 5 times.

Earlier I gave her her toothbrush, because she likes to brush her teeth herself for a while, and after we were done brushing her teeth and she was just wandering around the bedroom with it, she came over to me as I was sitting on the floor watching her, and poked the brush at my mouth. When I obliged and opened up, she actually tried brushing my teeth. It was rather cute.

IRC Funnies

2009-05-01T12:13:52Z

<Grey_Loki> http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/ear_trainer/index.php
<Grey_Loki> I got 69% after 70 tries - my main problems were recognising perfect 4ths and minor 6ths
<khenes> I can't get any
<khenes> shouldn't be surprised...I'm a punk bassist :P
<Grey_Loki> 'Durrrr.....harmony? Consonance?'
<Grey_Loki> :D
<khenes> haha
<khenes> I'll just play these three notes kinda fast, okay guys?
Grey_Loki laughs
<khenes> meanwhile the vocalist is trying to figure out which end of the mic to sing in and the guitarist is currently ODing in the alley behind the venue

St. Petersburg Progress

2009-04-26T21:11:42Z

I swear part 5 on this chart is probably bigger than parts 3 and 4 put together, if not larger. I've already stitched so much, and there's still a lot left... more regular stitches, and then a crapload of back-stitching too, and a load of Rhodes stitches. The 2 parts after this don't seem to be as big, so I'm considering this the hump in this particular project so far.

I'm also completely sick of stitching these yellow houses, urgh. Pretty much the same thing x 8 gets a bit tedious.

And time to take a break anyway. Between yesterday's stitching and some I did earlier today, my neck is killing me, and given that we pole-vaulted from cold weather into summer and it's well over 80-something F in the house, sitting around with 3 square feet of linen covering my lap over clothes is a bit more toasty than I want to be at present.

I'd like to think that I'll be done with this part soon, and can subsequently take pictures, but I'm guessing that even stitching solidly it'll easily take the rest of the week, especially given all the back-stitching on the windows and doors. But, the end result is worth it. And the next part of the chart is way more interesting too, and I'd like to move on to that soon.

tanthe @ 2009-04-23T18:19:00

2009-04-23T22:20:23Z

I have a new watch!

:D

tanthe @ 2009-04-21T21:34:00

2009-04-22T01:39:02Z

I think the "Close Door" buttons on elevators are there just to taunt us. I don't think I've ever had the doors respond after pushing one of those buttons, not immediately in the sense that the closing was a result of the button being mashed.

I think the elevator manufacturers can save themselves the trouble, really, of producing the buttons if they don't let them work anyway. Unless of course they watch us on a hidden camera, as we engage in acts of random futility, trying to make the doors close faster...

Storms

2009-04-21T02:20:43Z

One of the things I really miss from back home is decent thunder storms. I was reminded of this fact just now, as I was putting the pumpkin cookies in the oven and saw a flash of lightning outside.

Storms here in the Hudson Valley just sweep through at break neck speed, and if you hear thunder more than 3 times, it's a lot.

Back home, my parents' house is located right next to a church, with a lightning rod on it, in a tiny town situated on a river, in a country with very changeable weather. It's a storm magnet. Storms would just hover overhead for an hour or more, especially in the summer when the warmer and cooler air would clash regularly and storms were frequent. My brothers' and my bedrooms were on the top floor of the house, under the roof, and we had these large Velux windows, and so you could leave the luxaflex blinds in them open, and watch the lightning tearing across the sky, followed by the thunder, and, depending on the storm (though more so in the autumn and winter), rain pummeling down on the roof tiles. Sometimes when the lighting would actually strike the rod on the church, you could feel the tremor through the ground and the house.

It was awesome, and I miss that a lot. Especially when what I get in return is these puny 5-10 minute storms that barely make their presence known.

Indecisiveness

2009-04-16T18:48:00Z

Okay, I'm kind of indecisive at the moment about new shoes. A news breaking subject it is not, but hey ;)

All three are by the same company, and same basic design. But, the devil's in the details. One's more casual, the other more formal and one in between. Mostly I'm just looking for cute flats that aren't sneakers, I'm fed up with wearing sneakers... it's way more casual than I want to be. Plus, my sneakers should at some point go back into my gym bag, and I should be wearing them there again, not out and about :P

So, help a girl out... cast your vote:

View Poll: Shoes

Belated Easter Thoughts

2009-04-14T22:37:51Z

I realise it's been a while since I was a kid (shush!), but when did Easter turn into a gift and card giving holiday?

And what the hell is with the jelly beans?

Matilda got given a really age inappropriate Easter gift basket... somehow I don't think something containing felt tip colouring pens and a journal is really something for a 13 month old. Apparently it was bought for her because it had a doll in it. The doll has a fabric covered styrofoam head, the eyes and nose are plastic and glued on, and will pop off in no time at all, and the wool hair is easily ripped from its skull, which Sparky (their dog) already helped with when he got a hold of it. The doll has "flimsy choking hazard" written all over it, unfortunately.

And then there was the candy she doesn't/can't/shouldn't eat.

History In School Good, Mmkay?

2009-04-07T15:16:00Z

Pictures

2009-04-06T04:27:35Z

I was going through some photos, given that I've been uploading stuff to my Flickr account, and came across some from Halloween 2007.

Here's a picture of the Jack Skellington pumpkin I carved:

My brother spent Halloween with us that year, and given that we don't really have it in Holland, he enjoyed carving pumpkins and doing all that kind of stuff...

And we had fun making cookies too:

Random Images

2009-04-05T00:46:55Z

Via Tom/vervain:

http://www.marcofolio.net/imagedump/imagedump_january_2009.html

http://www.marcofolio.net/imagedump/imagedump_february_2009.html

Oh Em Gee. Sleep Please!

2009-03-27T13:39:03Z

So, we finally have Dashiell in something resembling a normal sleeping pattern (third night in a row where he's gone to bed somewhere between 8-9pm and slept til 5-6am, for him a *huge* deal), and then Matilda just gets worse and worse. She just pulled an all-nighter, pretty much. Well she had one or two of those <10 minute micro naps, which amped her up completely, but obviously doesn't do much for me beyond make me extremely frustrated.

I just canceled and rescheduled the tour of the school that I was going to go visit later, because I honestly don't think it's going to be a good idea to get in the car in an hour and drive around after not having slept yet, and having slept poorly yesterday.

Currently she's calmer, as I put her in her seat in front of the tv for a few minutes, so she's watching PBS/Sprout. It seems to be distracting her, which is good, because she was bouncing off the walls not 5 minutes earlier and driving me to the point of wanting to scream.

If I'm really lucky, she'll pass out within the next 5-10 minutes. *sigh*

Thanks

2009-03-26T02:31:47Z

... for all the birthday wishes for Miss Matilda :)

♥

I'll Take One of Those Please...

2009-03-24T19:56:09Z

Prez is listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio play... I have decided that I need the ability to create one of those "Someone Else's Problem" fields. Sounds totally awesome.

Hyves, part 2

2009-03-24T07:40:28Z

Okay. Weirder than finding high school people, is finding primary school people.

ZOMG.

LOL... and finding some of my cousins on there too. And some of their kids O.O

Hyves

2009-03-24T00:54:44Z

... which sounds kinda ick :P but it's a networking site, primarily Dutch oriented. A highschool friend sent me an invite looooooooooooooong long ago, and I finally succumbed.

I'm having one OMG! moment after the other, finding people from my highschool class there. So bizarre after 14 years (zomg, I can't believe it's that long >_<).

tanthe @ 2009-03-22T22:44:00

2009-03-23T03:51:58Z

Via http://roflrazzi.com/

Backasswards

2009-03-20T20:50:44Z

http://apina.biz/13779.gif

Link courtesy of Grey_Loki

$@&$*(%#

2009-03-20T11:10:01Z

OMG I'm over this weather.

Wednesday it was warm and sunny, and I could sit outside without a coat or sweater on while the kids played, and it looked like Spring was finally on the horizon. This morning it's SNOWING again.

ENOUGH ALREADY! *headdesk*

IRC Funnies

2009-03-19T05:27:15Z

"Has anyone else noticed that life is all about arse. You're either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, busting it or trying to get a piece of it."

A comment someone relayed earlier in IRC, which made me laugh.

This One's Mostly For Kit

2009-03-11T07:10:32Z

http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/slides/steampunk.html

Taken from a very funny site with motivational posters relating to RPG games... so anyone who's ever done some D&D or WoW or LotRO etc. will likely get a good chuckle out of most of these:

http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/slides/1d4hp.html

The Facebook Stupids

2009-02-20T05:22:58Z

So, I have a Facebook, as of about 3 weeks ago. Yes, I fail and I'm probably the last person in the world to get with it and join.

On FB, I have this Circle of Moms application, which is essentially all kinds of parenting forums. One of the ones I'm on, is a March 2008 group, given that's when Matilda was born. I figured it might be interesting to have a look-see.

I still have to wonder at the intelligence of some people when their posts are titled "Anyone with a 10 month old?"

...

Why yes, you dumbass, pretty much everyone else, considering they had a baby IN THE SAME MONTH YOU DID.

Oy vey. Can't even blame it on the pregnant stupids anymore 10-11 months after the fact.

In other news: Facebook totally beats Myspace any which way from Sunday, and sends it home crying to mama.